Chesapeake Bay Greenhouse Effects

Some islands right in our backyards are slipping away before our eyes. According to Conservation International the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, as of 2016, is the highest in 3 million years. Global warming will melt many Glaciers that will affect sea level and the Islands around the world including the Chesapeake Bay. Many Islands will no longer exist due to sea level rise and flooding’s. Global warming is when the temperature gradually increases, generally accredited to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants. Pollutants will cause acid rain which will pollute the water and kill off the animals that drink the water.

Eleven percent of all global

When Global warming ended the Last Ice Age, it melted glaciers that covered much of North America. Sea levels rose and flooded the lower Susquehanna Valley, the waters spread Northward creating the flat coastal plain of Maryland and Virginia. It also created the tidal portions of rivers like the Potomac and the Nanticoke. Before Europeans arrived, Native Americans camped along the shores. Families and entire communities soon had to leave. In William Cronin book it states an Island “St. Clemens” was four hundred acres of thick trees when Marylanders first found it. St. Clemens is almost now treeless (8). J.F Hunter reported the amount and rate of erosion on three Islands. In 1848 Sharps Island had 438 acres by 1910 there was only 53 acres left. That is seven acres a year being lost. James Island had 976 acres in 1848, they were down to 490 in 1910. Annually 8 acres decreased. In 1847 Tilghman Island there was 2,015 acres by 1900 there was only 1,686 acres left. That was six acres lost each year

The Island is known as Tangier Island. Tangier Island is one of the most isolated and extraordinary places in the U.S. Those who live on Tangier Island get their supplies to them by mailboat (Cronin). The island is an hour and a half ferry ride from the rest of the world. They travel to mainland for food, supplies, etc. Just 1.2 square miles in all, Tangier Island is home to more than 500 full-time residents whose families have known one another for decades (Storm). Tangier Island is so small they travel by Golf carts and bikes. Tangier Island is used to get away from mainland to a small community, with little to no violence. Many citizens speak in a thick accent native to the island, equal parts Southern twang and English brogue. The traces of Elizabethan English still present in the accent may have been influenced by working-class Brits who came to the island early in its settling. Vowels are extended to multiple syllables, making certain words hard to understand to outsiders (Storm). On September 18, 2003 the Chesapeake Bay was hit by Hurricane Isabel. The cost of damage for Maryland was 275 Million and for Virginia it cost more than a billion. The Islands Watts, Tangier and Smith Islands were completely submerged (8). Some of the names famous in Tangier Island is Parks, 93 residents had that name in 2009, 75 citizens had the last name Pruitt and 65 people