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I wonder at that, what folks are doing.... since realestate in some areas is a generational thing.. like cottages for for us Canucks ?
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Rising sea levels are destroying local coastlines
By TOM RATZLOFF
Dec 28, 2006, 12:19
BILL EISER, DHEC
BILL EISER, DHEC
Two photos taken three years apart show beach erosion on the Isle of Palms at Wild Dunes Resort.
Some Wild Dunes residents on the Isle of Palms may feel like the dance band on the Titanic. Their beach is disappearing right before their eyes.
Two photos tell the tale.
The first, taken on Thanksgiving 2003 in front of the Isle of Palms resort, shows an ample, healthy beach with fat, vegetated dunes. The second photo was snapped earlier this month at the same spot. The beach and dunes are gone, replaced by a bulwark of white, pillowy sandbags to keep seawater out of the buildings.
This stark visual evidence was presented earlier this month at a Charleston symposium on the impact of global warming and rising sea levels on coastlines during the next century. Sponsored by the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, the workshop assembled state regulators, scientists, business leaders and local government officials to seek lasting solutions for coastal management. No state legislators attended the conference.
"We’re facing some tough, difficult issues," said Strachan Donnelly, president of the Center for Humans and Nature. "Global warming and rising sea tides are regional, national and international issues and should send chills down our spines. We’re going to be suffering in the natural world and the human world and we’ve got to be responsible in mitigating damage and preparing ourselves as much as possible. The fact is that global warming is real, sea tides are going to rise and we are going to face difficulties."
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said the symposium was a wonderful regional opportunity to think about the coast and the challenges we face. He said that unchecked development could change and damage the coast’s ability to sustain the ocean.
"The responsibility for us in this country and other developing countries is that we have responsibility for planning regionally," Riley said, noting that communities need green-belt buffers to preserve the watershed and eco-system. "… Every community needs an edge because it gives us an environmental and psychological filter. If it’s out there, then you’re enriched because it’s there. We need an edge to sprawl and growth."
The federal government’s most recent estimate is that the sea level could rise 19 inches over the next century. And Greenland’s rapidly melting ice cap and more severe hurricanes could exacerbate the problem.
Jim Morris, director of the University of South Carolina’s Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology & Coastal Research, said that the Greenland ice cap is melting at a faster rate than scientists thought possible even a decade ago.
"That will shave a lot of landscape off the coast," he said. "It’s going to really be quite dramatic."
Panelists addressed the impact of rising seas and storms on people, property, health and quality of life.
Hugh Lane, president of the Bank of South Carolina, said his bank no longer issues mortgages for beachfront properties and said vanishing beaches could devastate the regional tourist economy.
Insurers are getting skittish, too, according to Eleanor Kitzman, state insurance director. She said insurers are canceling policies, slashing coverage, increasing deductibles, which affects the entire population, not just coastal dwellers.
Approximately $144 million has been spent on beach renourishment in South Carolina since 1990, according to Carolyn Boltin, deputy commissioner of DHEC’s Office of Coastal Resource Management. But sea walls are now prohibited because they actually cause further erosion.
"Do we continue to renourish our beaches in the face of more storms, hurricanes and sea-level rise?" she asked.
Braxton Davis, OCRM’s director of science and policy, said South Carolina has 180 miles of beaches and approximately 3,000 miles of tidal-influenced inland shoreline. He said beach renourishment is a short-term solution because scientists estimate that erosion could claim up to 10 feet of shoreline each year and 200 feet by the year 2100.
Consequently, politicians will have to wrestle with tough issues such as relocation of beachfront homes in coming years, Boltin said.
Chris Marsh, executive director of The Lowcountry Institute, suggested abandoning all land in Mount Pleasant east of U.S. Hwy. 17 to preserve the watershed and coastline. He also said opening the hydroelectric dams on the Santee River would push sediment downstream to replenish barrier islands.
Global warming could also threaten public health, according to Dr. Robert Ball, an infectious disease consultant for DHEC. He said rising tides could signal the return of malaria to the Lowcountry. Toxic algae blooms are growing rapidly threatening marine life off the coast. For example, two people contracted ciguatera poisoning in 2004 after eating a barracuda they’d caught off the South Carolina coast. This condition is normally confined to fish found in the much warmer Caribbean.
The Heinz Center’s symposium was the kickoff to a 30-month initiative that will conduct regional workshops and ongoing collaboration with civic leaders and experts in a variety of fields. For more information, go to: www.heinzctr.org
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