Rising Tides

When it comes time to repair the town docks, Ed Michels, East Hampton Town’s chief harbormaster, will order taller pilings. This, as he said in a jaw-dropper of a story here by Christopher Walsh, is because sea level rise has made existing pilings too short during excessively high tides. And just like that, the town and many of its residents will begin to adjust.

Warming of the atmosphere caused by human activity is largely absorbed by the oceans, which, for a variety of reasons including the melting of the polar ice caps, is causing average water levels to rise. Ordinary northeaster storms now regularly flood the bays and harbors, Mr. Michels said. A bulkhead at Three Mile Harbor must be replaced with one much taller. Salt water threatens electricity supply pedestals at boat slips. The bellwether Napeague Meadow Road, which used to flood once or twice a year, now has water on it regularly. Gerard Drive in Springs is in dire need of help after a succession of destructive storms.

In addition to property damage, warmer, wetter winters have contributed to a rise in tick-borne illnesses. Where the oddball allergy to red meat caused by the bite of the lone-star tick was all but unknown, now the number of cases seen at one East Hampton medical practice alone exceeds 700. Other people suffer from far more dangerous illnesses, such as babesiosis and Lyme disease, which were once rare.

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper,” T.S. Eliot said, and in a sense, his doomsday poem predicted the incremental changes we now see. It is as simple as storm tides’ exceeding their usual bounds and as complex as doing something to end it.