The water level along Maryland’s 3,100 miles of coastal and bay shoreline is rising at a slow but accelerating rate . By 2050, scientists say, the water level will likely increase by a foot or two, perhaps up to six feet by 2100. It’s already threatening or swallowing up much of what’s in its way. And it’s certain to get worse.
“The Future is Now: Dealing with Rising Seas on Maryland’s Shores” is the name of the upcoming educational forum designed to inform Marylanders of the challenge and the adaptation that is proceeding, particularly near eroding rural shorelines and other low-lying areas, including Ocean City and the Baltimore and Annapolis waterfronts.
The day-long event will be held on February 21 from 9:30 to 3 at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Maryland and Chesapeake College’s Center for Leadership in Environmental Education, the forum will feature a lineup of knowledgeable speakers anxious to help spread the word about what has, can and should be done.
Keynoter speaker is Dr. Donald Boesch, president of University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Science.
“I want people to get their mind around the fact that the sea level is going to rise a lot faster than it has in the past and it is going to present some significant challenges to us,” he said.
“I want to give people a hard-nose sense of reality, but also let folks know that they have lots of choices,”
Other speakers include: Zoe Johnson, Program Manager for Climate Policy and Planning at Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources; former U.S. Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, now director of the Sassafras Environmental Education Center in Kennedyville, Maryland; Drew Koslow, recent Midshore Riverkeeper and founder of the South River Federation, and Mark Konapelsky, Critical Area Commissioner for Somerset County.
The sea level is rising around the globe. But the problem is particularly acute in Maryland where scientists have found that it has been rising three times faster than the worldwide average. They attribute this to natural forces in the Mid-Atlantic, including a change in the Gulf Stream.
A number of the Chesapeake Bay’s tiny islands have vanished. Others are washing away. Low-lying farms and forests are turning into marshes. The state of Maryland and many of its coastal counties have adjusted its zoning and building codes to guard against flooding.
Countless more decisions must be made, such as: What to do with buildings and roads already in low-lying areas; where to erect seawalls; what additional areas may have to be put off limits to commercial and residential developments, and what adjustments are needed in transportation systems.
The rising seas have been blamed by scientists worldwide on global warming, triggering a fiery debate among deniers, skeptics, environmentalists and politicians. The forum will focus not on why the seas are rising, but instead what to do about it.
“It some ways it doesn’t matter why. We have to deal with it now,” said Greg Farley, who as the center’s director will co-chair the forum with Patricia Comella, a member of the League of Women Voters of Maryland.
“Risings seas are not a bugaboo of the future, but a fact right now,” said Susan Cochran, president of the League of Women Voters of Maryland. “It is time to plan for the foreseeable future.”
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Kirk French Jr. says
https://easternshoreidealist.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-siren-song-of-environmentalists.html