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Damaged beach view or no view at all? 

December 3, 2019

I have seen in many local papers many recent articles and letters to the editors on the proposed offshore windfarm. Reports on public meetings say vast majorities of the audience are opposed on grounds such as damaged view, claims of secret procedures to sneak past public concerns, or other arcane reasons.

In contrast, many other people have written support letters because they already appreciate the need to radically and rapidly change our energy production and use it to fight climate change.  A line of thinking is missing from all these articles and letters: it is not about trading a miniscule change in the appearance at the local horizon for just a questionable local benefit from green electricity. We are up against a major global problem.

Recent measurements I found on the internet show that the rate of sea level rise - at least in some areas - has increased to one inch every three years instead of one inch every 10 years. And no one can say if the rate of rise will or will not increase faster as climate change continues to take place.

I spent a few more hours on the internet to confirm the following major facts. First, negative impacts have already been found on some real estate prices in flood zone areas caused by storm and tide flooding made worse in recent years by climate change sea level increases. 

Second, many projects have already been initiated to deal with sea level rise. For example, the San Francisco Airport and numerous areas in the San Francisco Bay area have been mapped for sea level negative impact based on engineering studies and trends in sea level rise measurements. SFO has begun to construct a 10-mile wall, to add protection from a three-foot higher sea, around the entire airport (a $500 million project). Also, in Miami, Fla., and some nearby coastal flood-prone areas there is talk and plans to raise highways and roads, build sea walls and install drain pumps. Some estimates for these projects around Florida and south and eastern USA coastal areas are up to $100 billion now. 

Third, in some local areas it is known that the land is sinking at the same time, and separately from, sea level rise. This means that problems will come there sooner.

Fighting climate change will take very high levels of continuous world participation over many decades. And we may be only partly successful. Next time you go to the local beach, try to spend some time looking at how it will be with the sea level higher, by some of the estimates (anywhere from a few feet to 60 feet) that scientists are making. The internet also has geological maps of prehistoric times which show that at one time one-third of the USA was underwater. It could be that way again. 

Heck, in a few decades there might not even be any of that beach left to have any view, with or without the wind farm. And, this is not counting what life and farming will be like in the hotter seasons.

Arthur E. Sowers
Harbeson

 

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