<p>Climate change is here and the Vineyard is on the front lines. This was the message at the third Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Conference held last week in Edgartown.</p>
Climate change is happening now and the Vineyard is on the front lines. This was the message at the third Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Conference held last Wednesday at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown.
Keynote speaker Jeff Donnelly, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said hurricanes will increase in frequency and intensity.
Keynote speaker Jeff Donnelly, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said hurricanes will increase in frequency and intensity.
More than 100 scientists, environmental representatives, town officials and interested residents attended.
Sea level rise, coastal erosion and storms on the increase were all topics for discussion throughout the daylong conference.
Keynote speaker Jeff Donnelly, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said the rising intensity and frequency of hurricanes is already endangering coastal communities such as the Vineyard.
“The sea level is currently rising at a rate not seen in at least 6,000 years,” he told the crowd. “The negative impacts of future hurricane activity will be greatly exacerbated by continuing sea level rise and coastal population growth.”
Held every two years, the conference is sponsored by the state Coastal Zone Management office and the Woods Hole Sea Grant program, with assistance from Barnstable County and the town of Oak Bluffs.
“The goal is to get people on the Island to network, learn about new research and learn about ongoing management issues,” said Steve McKenna, Cape and Islands regional coordinator for CZM.
Kathleen Theoharides, assistant secretary of climate change for Massachusetts.
Kathleen Theoharides, assistant secretary of climate change for Massachusetts.
But while some research and environmental projects forge ahead with the help of town and private funds, such as the recent one at Squibnocket Beach in Chilmark, others struggle to attract the attention and money needed to move past the idea stage.
The Massachusetts Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program aims to change that by offering substantial planning and action grants of $400,000 and up to towns for climate change preparedness and projects. Begun last year, the program is run out of the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Kathleen Theoharides, assistant secretary of climate change for Massachusetts, outlined the program and how Island towns can apply.
West Tisbury and Chilmark workshopped the program earlier this month after receiving an MVP grant. Oak Bluffs was recently accepted into the program, and Edgartown and Vineyard Haven have applied.
“The goal of the program is to help communities engage with climate change impacts and hazards,” Ms. Theoharides said. “It sets communities on a course toward action.”
Sea level rise, erosion, and storms were among subjects of day-long conference.
Sea level rise, erosion, and storms were among subjects of day-long conference.
Peter Flinker of Dodson and Flinker Inc., a landscape architecture company in Northampton hired by Chilmark and West Tisbury to consult on the MVP process, echoed the importance of towns developing resilience strategies. He suggested towns work to find ways to enhance transportation infrastructure, reduce flood and stormwater impacts and consider public health outcomes from the warming climate.
“Pretty soon we’ll have a mid-Atlantic climate, and then be like Charleston [South Carolina],” he said.
Chilmark selectman Warren Doty flagged the concerns in his town.
“How we can plan for sea level rise in Menemsha,” Mr. Doty said, noting the potential for flooding in the harbor and on the dockfronts.
Steve McKenna of state Coastal Zone Management office.
Steve McKenna of state Coastal Zone Management office.
A panel discussion moderated by Oak Bluffs conservation agent Liz Durkee closed the conference with a sober discussion about the future of the Island.
Martha’s Vineyard Commission executive director Adam Turner spoke about the importance of long-term collaboration among towns, environmental groups and citizens through programs such as the MVP in planning for the future.
Outside the hotel, tourists strolled down to the Edgartown Lighthouse on a warm late spring day, snapping pictures of the outer harbor scene. Inside, Mr. Turner warned that Island towns must take immediate action.
“You have to do it now because it’s already happening,” he said. “If you don’t think it is, then you aren’t paying attention.”
Comments
I guess the folks in VH
R Scott Patterson EdgartownI guess the folks in VH barreling ahead with the multi million dollar plan to rehab the waterfront along state road were not paying attention.
“The sea level is currently
james Edgartown“The sea level is currently rising at a rate not seen in at least 6,000 years,” he told the crowd.
not since Moses Parted the sea. can you be taken serious when you make a claim like this??
One thing is correct, the
Richard Herts WTOne thing is correct, the climate is changing as it always has since the beginning of time. But not the way folks want you to believe. When I was in 6 th grade in 1981, the teachers at the time, told us students that by 2018 Menemsha would be under water as we know it. Well my dock still stands and the water level has NOT changed one inch since 1981. You can look for yourself....please trust your own observations and not what a political party wants you to think. Thank you for reading.
same thing in the Edgartown
james Edgartownsame thing in the Edgartown School! pretty sure i should be surfing in front of the katama general store by now.
When there is Money like this
Ricard Herts WTWhen there is Money like this on the line, $400,000.00. You can bet they want you to believe. There are plenty of hands stirring that pot.
You are wrong, Richard Herts.
Carol formerly ChilmarkYou are wrong, Richard Herts. The information - data - comes from scientists, not politicians. I have geophysicists in my family; I know they despair of getting through the media noise created by politicians. My uncle told me 15 years ago that scientists have near unanimity on this - CO2 caused by humans burning fossil fuels are turbocharging global warming/climate change, and it will be lethal. Are you so deluded that you actually fantasize that thousands of scientists, all over the world, have formed a gigantic conspiracy to persuade the world of a lie? To what end?
I hope for the sake of the future that people like you are quickly dying off. Harsh, but true. None of us are going to be cool with even 20 feet of sea level rise. Know what we'll lose with that? Every single beach in the world. Every one.
People - put solar on your roof, buy an electric car. I've done that - it was not expensive - so have several of my neighbors. Not hard, not expensive. Solar leases are effectively free (instead of paying an electric bill, you pay a lease rental payment each month.) Please, please do it.
Easy Carol! the sky is not
james edgartownEasy Carol! the sky is not falling. All I am saying is I studied the effects of sea level rise in the 3rd grade at the Edgartown school. we had maps drawn and everything. By now we should be swimming somewhere near the airfield at least. The reality is the teachers were alarmists and not much has changed.
A $400,000 grant would
Rob Burnside Kingston, PAA $400,000 grant would certainly help MV improve emergency services radio communications, described in previous Gazette reporting.
As coastal scientists who
Charles Shabica and Stephen Cofer-Shabica Oak BluffsAs coastal scientists who have studied the shores of the Vineyard for more than 40 years, here's what's possible today - A severe nor'easter with a 4 foot storm surge at high tide. Are we prepared? We don't think so.
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