It's a shocking sight: a two-story house floating away from shore on the ocean's current. But for residents of Rodanthe, in North Carolina's Outer Banks, it's not the first time they've seen it.
What happened?
This was the seventh home in Rodanthe to simply collapse and float away in just the last four years, The New York Times reported, calling it "a stark reminder of climate change."
The house had been built atop wooden pilings, which kept it elevated above the sand. Over the past few years, however, sea levels had risen to submerge the pilings, which eroded with the surrounding sand. Finally, the pilings gave way, and the entire house became unmoored, washing away into the waves.
The Times quoted Robert Outten, the manager of Rodanthe's Dare County, who said, "The house just sat down in the surf and floated off."
Fortunately, the home was unoccupied and nobody was injured during the collapse.
Why are rising sea levels concerning?
This is primarily concerning because, far from being an isolated incident, collapses like this one are predicted to keep increasing as sea levels keep rising. The Times reported that sea levels in North Carolina have already risen by approximately six inches since 2000, and they could rise another 12 by 2050.
The rise is attributable to a combination of melting glaciers and ice sheets as well as thermal expansion as global heating warms the ocean, per Climate.gov. And unless global heating is slowed down by a change in human activity, the ripple effects will continue to devastate communities.
"The fact that a house fell isn't surprising to anyone," Outten told the Times. "Our problem is that we don't have any easy solutions for it."
What's being done?
While the root cause — global heating — needs to be addressed by large-scale and immediate action from corporations and governments, there are plenty of other grassroots solutions that people are developing in order to protect communities in the meantime.
For example, some communities in North Carolina and other vulnerable coastal areas around the world have looked into replenishing sand along beaches. This is a costly solution, however, so it may not be practical.
Other groups, including one architecture firm in the Netherlands, are looking into innovative building approaches and even constructing floating homes.
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