Climate Change, Wetlands and Riprap

I am referring to Steve Nash, a University of Richmond journalism professor (and close personal friend), who penned an in-depth article for the science publication about the impact of Seal Level Rise (SLR) on the ecology of the Mid-Atlantic Coast. The anticipated one-meter rise in sea levels by the end of the century, as you may recall, is a core assumption of the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change. The commission generated abundant information about the impending problem, but nothing more than the predictable “the sky is falling” coverage leaked into the Virginia press coverage.

Steve and I don’t see eye to eye on all aspects of Climate Change, but I do commend him for this: He is intellectually honest. He acknowledges the complexities of the debate, and he doesn’t leave readers with the idea that, as a certain governor of an unnamed Mid-Atlantic state, who will go unmentioned, put it, the “science is settled.” While I am skeptical of extreme views on climate change, I likewise think anyone who dismisses the possibility of human-caused global warming as a “hoax” is ignoring a lot of evidence. At the very least, we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that sea levels will continue to rise throughout this century — as they have in the last century.

Anyone interested in the impact on wildlife species — from horseshoe crabs to shore birds — will find Steve’s article worth reading. But there’s another reason why this article is important to public policy wonks like the readers of Bacon’s Rebellion. He asks what rising sea levels will do to wetlands: a vital wildlife habitat, nutrient filter and buffer against tidal surges in big storms. As wetlands always did when sea levels rose and fell in aeons past, they will migrate. The lowest lying wetlands will disappear under the waves, while the marsh plants and animals species will move “uphill” so to speak, depending upon the slope of the shoreline and the extent of sedimentation from the rivers.

There’s just one problem with the migration scenario in the 21st century. Writes Nash:

As shorelines flood, political pressure mounts for home and business owners to install more riprap, bulkheads, dikes, seawalls, revetments, groins, jetties and other barriers to try to hold back the sea. In varying degrees, these structures wall off the potential for new beaches, wetlands and other habitats, and guarantee obliteration of existing ones as sea levels rise. A recent survey found that 26 percent of Maryland’s 6600 kilometers of shoreline is already hardened (the figure does not include tidal creeks).

If Virginia wants to preserve its wetlands, the only solution is to achieve Fundamental Change in human settlement patterns. To read more about the impact of SLR on Virginia’s coastline, check out the Climate Change Commission’s Sept. 10 report.