The Department of Interior warned that climate change could lead one day to the Statue of Liberty being “underwater” due to sea level rise and storm surges.
Touting a study released Thursday showing that spring is coming earlier in 75 percent of the national parks, the Interior Department released a list of seven iconic views that could be changed by climate change.
Among the natural wonders was the Statue of Liberty, the 305-foot statue on Liberty Island off the coast of New York City.
“One of the most recognizable statues in the world could someday be underwater,” the list stated. “Sea-level rise and an increase in storm surges are putting the Statue of Liberty at risk — in 2012, Hurricane Sandy inundated the statue’s island in water, causing it to close for nearly eight months of repairs.”
While the Statue of Liberty being drowned by waves or buried in sand is a staple in natural disaster movies, it seems unlikely the statue itself will ever be underwater as predicted by Interior.
A study released earlier this year reported sea levels could rise 49 feet by 2500 if the Antarctic ice sheet were to melt, according to the Washington Post. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated sea levels would rise between 1.7 and 3.22 feet by the end of the century.
The study touted by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Thursday stated that the earlier onset of spring is being caused by climate change and is having unexpected effects on national parks.
For example, at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, early blooming of flowers allows invasive plants to spread across the park and displace native wildflowers.
An Interior spokesperson said the department did not mean to imply that the entire statue would be underwater.
“While the blog post says the Statue could be underwater, it doesn’t say it could be completely covered by water, rather, we mean that part of it could be underwater due to the amplifying effects of rising sea levels meaning that even storms of lower and lower intensity could cause more storm surge damage in the future,” the spokesperson said.
