Climate Change Hits Close To Home For Rhode Islanders
By Samantha Murphy
Last year marked the warmest year ever recorded, and this trend in rising temperature will only continue if people don’t take charge.
Locally, many campus professors and specialists routinely monitor the bay to see how dangerous this phenomenon of climate change truly is. Oceanographers and biologists have taken measurements of sea level and temperature for decades. Unfortunately, the trend has been on the rise for both, without showing any signs of reversing.
According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, 82 species in Northeast waters have been affected by climate change.
Marine habitat scientist Brian Deangelis, who teaches marine biology at the Community College of Rhode Island, also notes how the southern Rhode Island coastline keeps drastically changing.
“We are already seeing how increased tidal heights are starting to impact coastal salt marshes,” Deangelis said.
“Salt marshes also store carbon — thus actually fighting the source of climate change.”
Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that characteristically dictated by the flooding and draining of salt water brought in by the tides. According to Deangelis and others, these intertidal habitats — stinky, salty, beautiful meetings of land and sea — are crucial to the health of coastlines, fisheries, and biological communities on and off shore.
Wetlands resemble nature’s filters. They reduce flooding by absorbing rainwater, and protect water quality by filtering pollution and runoff. The marshes store excess nutrients for further decomposition before releasing them slowly and safely into our oceans. They serve as a buffer between the relentless crashing waves and the lowland coastal plains that many southern Rhode Islanders call home.
Local oyster farmer, Bill Huggins, said, “ Each year the water line gets a little higher. I’m not sure exactly how that’ll affect the oysters but the [salt] pond is a delicate ecosystem.”
Huggins owns a tiny island, barely more than a sandbar, in Point Judith pond. Huggins uses it for an oyster farming area. At low tide the island transforms into a peninsula attached to Jonathan Island. Once attached day and night, rising water levels have isolated the island, making it less accessible.
“It definitely makes things harder, with the island shrinking more every year. I’m runnin’ outta’ room to wash the oysters!” Huggins said with a laugh.
“Last hurricane, the whole island was under water. My son and I spent days trying to salvage bags and cages scattered all over the pond.”
Salt marshes serve as nature’s defense against erosion. Salt marshes even play a key role in our economy. Seventy-five percent of Rhode Island’s commercial fish species rely on estuaries for their primary habitat, spawning grounds, and nursery areas (approximately $75 million of RI commercial fishing profits annually.)
Marshes help protect against climate change. Yet, ironically, the marshes themselves are being affected by climate change. Is it the chicken or the egg? Salt marshes are just one example of an ecosystem affected by climate change. The same holds true for all the other habitats on earth.
“Rhode Island is one of the most proactive states in the country,” DeAngelis stated. “Already people in Rhode Island have started to address some really difficult topics and decisions about planning for climate change.”
As climate change affects the ecosystem, all the species that depend on their habitats will become impacted. The one common species that depends on all those habitats, though, is humans. However, humans continue to be the leading of cause this global epidemic.
Another major project in Rhode Island are wind farms. National Grid has begun to install 20 miles of cable from Scarborough Beach to Block Island. Many believe wind farms will make a huge contribution to slow climate change, as they will soon convert wind to electricity and create an alternative from coal and natural gas burning power plants.
One specific example of climate change that is occurring in Rhode Island is the Matunuck area. The Ocean Mist is a classic beach-bar and restaurant that has remained a staple in Matunuck for decades.
Right on the water, if one were to look through the gaps between the floorboards one could actually see the waves lapping at the beach below the building. Erosion has caused this beloved restaurant to be surrounded by water.
“This problem began in 1918 when the government built the harbor refuges and beachways,” the owner of the Ocean mist, Kevin Finnegan, said.
A seawall has been there since the 1950’s, and recently the town wanted to restore the wall, yet many opponents said a wall would result in the Ocean Mist being destroyed.
“This week, the expert (the man behind the wall idea) went bankrupt so it is now getting postponed until 2017 or 2018,” Finnegan said.
If climate change continues, some believe The Ocean Mist may last only a few more years. Nonetheless, Finnegan, is more optimistic.
“They’ve been telling me for thirty years that I have two years left,” Finnegan said, “And the beach today is bigger than it’s been since 1985, and if this continues, the Ocean Mist might never wash away. This will be here I believe for thirty more years,”
Even though most of the Matunuck beach is gone, there is still hope. The tidal shifts have caused more sand to be placed on The Mist and Tara’s beaches. The beaches are beginning to grow slowly but surely.
However, if the Ocean Mist is destroyed, Finnegan has developed future plans. “If it did get destroyed in a hurricane, storm, etc. I would rebuild, but in the same area. If you take this location away, it takes half of what we are away.”
This complex problem has many different views and perspectives, both optimistic and pessimistic.
DeAngelis is more optimistic about the situation.
“I’m confident Rhode Island will continue to be a leader across the country in habitat restoration and planning for climate change, and I’m excited to be a part of it,” DeAngelis said.
