Climatide

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Coastal erosion threatened this Chatham home until it was moved 30ft back from the coast in 2009.

Although there was little good news to be found, it was gratifying yesterday to see the problem of rising sea level get the attention it deserves: a full front-page spread in the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe. Beth Daley did an admirable job of explaining the science behind sea level rise – from warming seas, to melting glaciers, even changes in ocean circulation. Bottom line: the conservative consensus among experts calls for 2-3 feet of sea level rise by 2100, as much as foot by 2050. Even if we miraculously stopped all greenhouse gas emissions today, sea level would continue to rise for decades because of what’s already accumulated in the atmosphere.

Already, 65 acres of prime Massachusetts coastal real estate is swallowed by the sea every year;

Let me briefly interrupt here to point out that it’s estimated the Cape, alone, loses some 33 acres of coastal land each year.

ocean waters have crept up about a foot here in the last century. While more land will be eaten away, storm surges — abnormal rises of water during severe weather — layered on top of higher seas could push much further inland, especially in flat coastal areas of New England, and oceanside homes in places like Scituate and Gloucester will be even more vulnerable. Some scientists say that climate change may also bring fiercer and more frequent storms.

That presents a dilemma (and that’s an understatement) for owners of coastal property, and for government officials. Much of Massachusetts’ vulnerable coastline is armored with seawalls, jetties, and groins. The condition of such armoring was the subject of a 2009 survey.

www.boston.com

A 2009 inventory rated the condition of Massachusetts' seawalls as 'good or excellent' (green), 'fair' (yellow), or 'critical or poor' (red).

Deeply concerned over the projected sea level rise, state officials commissioned a massive inventory of publicly owned sea walls and other coastal barriers four years ago. Almost 165 structures, whose failure would result in significant property damage, were declared in fair, poor, or critical condition, but only a fraction of them have been fixed because of the budget crisis. The price tag to repair and fortify all of them against rising seas is huge: more than a billion dollars.

“We are now facing a societal debate about how much people want to pay — and who pays — for coastal defense,’’ said S. Jeffress Williams, a coastal marine geologist and scientist emeritus with the US Geological Survey Woods Hole Science Center.

Rick Murray, a professor of earth science at Boston University and a Scituate selectman, puts it more bluntly: “Not everything we love can be saved.’’

Perhaps the gut-wrenching question that needs to be asked is not what can we save, but rather, what should we save?