Charlotte Observer
In just 23 years, according to a new projection, some old favorite beaches — Holden, Sunset, Topsail — may lose up to half their width. And by 2080 more than a dozen mainstays of North Carolina’s family beaches will be gone, my colleague Wade Rawlins reported the other day in the N&O. The beachfront may be an asphalt road in some places.

These are scary statistics, but maybe it won’t happen. After all, as the report’s authors at Duke, Appalachian State, East Carolina and UNC Wilmington note, the projections were made on some assumptions — not the worst case and not the best case, but a moderate level of adverse impacts. They didn’t try to forecast all impacts, but attempted to inform the public what might happen if sea levels continue to rise and if storms continue to hit the coast. Read full story