Dire Implications In Greenland Ice
As attention continues to be focused on the Army Corps project on the Montauk beach, it is vital that the far more encompassing problem of sea level rise gets attention.
Recent news about the Greenland ice sheet is an alarming warning. According to recent data, glaciers in its cold and dry north long thought to be stable are changing, and the shift could have dire implications for the world’s coastal communities — like East Hampton. Just two of these glaciers hold enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by three and a half feet.
If 3.5 feet does not sound like much to you, consider that researchers believe that the natural landward shift of shoreline is at least 1 to 10 feet. That might mean for eastern Long Island that a single foot of sea level rise would push the dunes and estuary edges back about 10 feet, or, if those Greenland glaciers were to entirely break loose, roughly 35 feet of potential shoreline loss. And some coastal geologists have put the recession figure for sand beaches at a frightening 150 times the rate of sea level rise. This is a massive crisis for the East End, but almost no authority is showing any sign of adequate response.
The 14,500-sandbag seawall that the East Hampton Town Board recently vowed to see through to completion will cover only a tiny portion of East Hampton’s roughly 70 miles of shoreline. In the long term, as erosion is only predicted to accelerate, a gradual, managed retreat from the coast will be the only option.
Earlier this year the town board appointed a committee to map out a path to coastal resiliency, using a $250,000 state grant. The members are a mix of town staffers, elected officials, and representative of public and private agencies. It is a start, but to be really successful, the Coastal Assessment Resiliency Plan committee will have to accomplish at least two things: hire top-flight experts to guide the process and then convince local, state, and county regulators to follow their recommendations to the letter.
Although nine years of work went into the town’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, it was essentially tossed in the waste bin when it came to the Montauk Army Corps project. This should give the opponents of the Corps project a very real reason to doubt that the town’s new resiliency committee’s effort will amount to much. The critics would be happy to be proven wrong, of course, but considering that the powers-that-be are the same people responsible for the looming Montauk disaster, it will take a great deal to convince them that anyone is on the right course.
What is happening now in Greenland should be a wake-up call both locally and for leaders in Washington. Is anyone listening?