After reading the past weekend about plans by the City of Annapolis to protect historic and cultural institutions from the threat of up to 3.8 feet of sea-level rise as predicted by scientists by the end of this century, I thought immediately about the exposure of Oxford, St. Michaels and Tilghman Island to the ravages of significant sea-level rise on the Eastern Shore.
For me, denial of climate change is not an option. I do not share the skepticism voiced by some about the scientific forecasts. We’ve already experienced abnormal weather conditions—an unusually cold winter, an unusually rainy summer so far.
Though we have nothing comparable to the area encompassed by Historic Annapolis, we have historic buildings in Easton, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, longstanding homes on Morris Street and the Strand in Oxford and the longtime commercial industry on Tilghman Island.
Am I an enthusiastic member of the school of doom and gloom reveling in horrific outcomes? Absolutely not. I do, however, believe in reality-based science that views the preponderance of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere as causing serious consequences, such as the melting of the ice cap in the Arctic.
So, what should we do in the face of threats we wish we could dismiss as folly and unfounded fear?
The City of Annapolis has joined with the Naval Academy, the Maryland Historic Trust, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and others to develop ways to protect historic structures in a flood plain that already has experienced surges.
I recommend that Talbot County join forces too with the Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA, Horn Point Laboratory, representatives of the towns of Oxford, St. Michaels and Tilghman Island and private citizens to develop a plan to protect our county, including its cultural and historic institutions and our cemeteries. Like the City of Annapolis, our county ought to seek funding from the Corps of Engineers to design a workable plan.
Two years ago, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) organized a one-day conference concerning climate change, referred in current lingo as coastal resilience. I suppose that terms like climate change and global warming have become too politically provocative. I don’t much care what we call the changes in weather conditions in recent years—as long we focus our attention on an eventuality that will drastically change our living conditions on the Eastern Shore.
Don Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, said at the ESLC conference that 80 percent of global warming is due to humans in terms of carbon dioxide emissions from cars, trucks and tractors. Warming trends began in the 1950s. We’ve had 27 years of above-average temperatures.
By 2100, temperatures could rise of a level dangerously severe for human life—unless we do something now. Boesch said we could experience 30-40 days of summer weather exceeding 100 degrees
Fahrenheit. He said we could see a 2.1-foot rise in the 21st century.
Adaptation can take many and often expensive forms, whether it involves building homes and buildings more than three feet of the ground, building roads at higher elevations, continuing to rebuild and replenish beaches and infest them with dunes.
And, as Don Boesch, we could change our behavior.
I called earlier for a coalition of public entities—joined by concerned private citizens—to develop a plan to protect not only our cultural and historic structures but homes and properties long existing in flood plains and low lying areas. While I understand that more immediate issues, such as the county’s comprehensive zoning plan, understandably preoccupy our elected officials and concerned citizens, I hope that climate change/coastal resilience commands some attention sooner, rather than later.
We live in a precious, low-lying area. It demands constant preservation. We can adapt at some expense, as Annapolis is considering. We can change our behavior.
Stated again: denial is not an option.
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