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

greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans comes from deforestation compared to the emissions from all the cars and trucks on the planet. The understanding of how much emissions effect our environment is unsustainable. Eleven percent people are currently vulnerable to climate change impacts such as droughts, floods, heat waves, extreme weather events and sea-level rise. Many islands have completely disappeared due to rising sea levels. Plenty of islands that we do not know of used to be here until they have been taken over by water. The Islands that have been destroyed, most people wouldn’t know they existed like Maids Island named after the Susquehannock Indians. Due to natural wind cycle, sea levels rise faster in the Western Pacific(Morley). More than 400 islands in Maryland and Virginia cannot be found on modern maps(Kenney).
The Little Ice Age occurred in the 1850, it was near the end of the naturally occurring, 300-year period. The Little Ice Age is when temperatures cool globally. The results included expanding oceans and sea level rise globally(Kenney). Maryland has 281 named islands within its many waters and waterways. There are also many unnamed islands in Maryland, many of which are very temporary in nature, lasting only a few years or decades due to storms.
In 1608 the Bay was explored by Captain John Smith. Travel by water became second nature to those who lived on the Bay. Chesapeake Islands served as retreats for presidents, senators, congressmen, and a host of officials and politicians. They nurtured inventors, educators, writers, artists, and scholars.
The Chesapeake Bay began as the Susquehanna River, flowing from New York to the Atlantic Ocean.

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

(7).
Mainland and Islands alike coastal wetlands are threatened by erosion and rising sea levels. When the rise is too rapid, creatures have no time to depend on marshes and shallows (8). Those wetlands support most of living organisms. These wetlands provide habitat for many kinds of plants and animals and are especially critical as amphibian breeding grounds. Wetlands also reduce flood peaks, serve as natural filters, control erosion, and recharge and discharge groundwater (National Park Service).
One of our own Islands very known to Marylanders and Virginians have the possibility of disappearing in 50-100 years.

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

had Crockett.
Deal Island is another Island that is slipping right under residents’ feet. It is a three-hour drive from Washington, just across the bay from Tangier Island with a population of 578 in the 2000 census. Artifacts found on Deals Island suggest it to be the site of the Manokin Indians Village who left soon after the English settlers arrived, leaving shards of pottery, arrow heads, and bits of stone tools. Those who live there are deeply rooted in Methodist and politically conservative. The island earned the name Devils Island in the eighteenth century, it was a lawless refuge for pirates, Deal Island remained as a hideout soon after the pirates left (107). During the American Revolution, it was used to stage raids on shipping in Tangier Sound.
The salt water is poisoning the soil and killing the trees. Scientists say that the ghost forests are a sign that within the next generation, parts of the island will become uninhabitable. Deal Island could have enough flooding that would make living there almost impossible. Homes and businesses are expected to be wiped out by rising global temperatures. Deal Island’s acreage dropped from 2,280 in 1984 to 1,950 in 1998, about 6.6 acres was lost each year. Little Deal Island went from 368 acres in 1984 to 197 acres in 1998, about 3.4 acres lost a year (107). Deal Island is losing people and ground. The population dropped from 578 to 471 in the first decade of the 21st century. Deal Island has retreated about 250 feet in the past three or four decades. All that remains is a sliver of sand. Parts of people yard flood about 50 days out of the year. Over the past century, sea level rose about 1 foot in the Chesapeake region. half of that total is due to seas rising because of the global warming; the other half, to the land sinking is related to the melting of glaciers thousands of years ago.
Artificial reefs, made of concrete, have been found capable of saving islands that are sinking by preventing further erosion. Long lasting artificial reefs are useful tools for restoring our reef systems to a natural and productive balance. Artificial reefs are manmade under water structures to prevent erosions. To make an artificial reefs rocks, cinder blocks, and even wood and old tires was used. Nowadays, many companies use their specialized design, manufacture, and deployment of long-lasting artificial reefs that are typically constructed of limestone, steel, and concrete. In 1986, the “Thunderbolt” was intentionally sunk in 120 feet (36.6 meters) of water south of Marathon and Key Colony Beach in Florida. The ship’s structure is now home to colorful sponges, corals, and hydroids, providing food and habitat for a variety of sea creatures. If the material used in the thunderbolt is used on these islands it would keep the creatures alive long enough to do their jobs, managing their land and saving their habitats. Keeping the creatures strong and alive is a major key of maintaining our lands and the food that we capture from the water.
Of the many islands that once existed in the bay, nearly 500 have entirely disappeared. Many of the Bay islands were farmed and logged; both processes can destroy the system of roots and soil that hold an island in place. One island disappeared as recently as 2010. By the 1920s, Hollands Island was abandoned because of the threat of erosion. One man who still owned property on the island worked tirelessly to save the island; yet, in 2010, the final trace of the island, a 125-year-old farm house, collapsed and disappeared into the water.
Many of islands around us our sinking and disappearing and part of the problem is pollution which is coming from us. Minimizing pollution, climate change and erosion would be a major help of keeping around the history of the Chesapeake Bay which some islands soon people will never know existed.