“The sea-shore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world.”
-Thoreau, in Cape Cod
Over the past half-century the mid-Atlantic coast, including Massachusetts, has experienced a sea level rise that is 3-4 times higher than the global average, according to a report by Sallenger and colleagues in Nature Climate Change. The effects of sea level rise are increasingly felt on Nantucket Island where powerful storm surges dramatically alter beaches and destroy houses.
A storm surge recently eroded the Nantucket coastline in Madaket, leaving this house isolated and vulnerable to being destroyed by the next storm
Homeowners are moving their houses further inland where possible, or building massive sea walls. Such efforts are understandable, but perhaps just delay the inevitable effects of climate change.
Near the town of Nantucket, homeowners build massive walls in front of their houses to keep back the rising sea
Because of its mild oceanic climate, Nantucket gardeners can grow cold-sensitive plants, such as camellias and crepe myrtles that cannot survive Boston winters. As the global climate warms, we will likely be able to grow these beautiful plants in Boston in coming decades.
Camellias are still flowering in early November in protected gardens
The efforts of Nantucket’s people to balance economic development and environmental protection faces new urgency because of rising sea levels and climate change. Some of these same issues have been described in the recent book A Meeting of Land and Sea: Nature and the Future of Martha’s Vineyard by the eminent Harvard Forest ecologist David Foster, that I reviewed for the journal Ecology.
Thank you, Richard, for the post and for coming out in November. We’ve had an interesting week here on Nantucket. With the winter storm last Thursday, we had significant flooding (again) especially in the downtown area. The storm surge coupled with the freezing temperatures likely caused at least 2 breaks in our main sewer line. As a result, millions of gallons of raw sewage were released into Nantucket harbor. A potentially interesting (if not devastating) example of secondary effects of climate change (though the exact cause of the sewer line break is still under investigation). The sewage flow was finally diverted after four days, but the story is still unfolding.
ReplyDelete-Sarah Bois, PhD
Linda Loring Nature Foundation