permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Virginia's coastal marsland, i.e. Tidewater Virginia, is oen of the most
beautiful places on Earth, or at least it was at one time. - LL

<>

BBC News - Virginia's dying marshes and climate change denial
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17915958

 5 June 2012 Last updated at 20:12 ET
Share this page

   - 
Email<http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/email/www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17915958>
   - Print <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17915958?print=true>

 37

   - Share <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17915958#>
   - Facebook <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17915958#>
   - Twitter <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17915958#>

Virginia's dying marshes and climate change denial By Daniel Nasaw BBC News
Magazine, York River, Virginia

'Ghost trees' are victims of rising sea levels
 Continue reading the main
story<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17915958#story_continues_1>
Altered States <http://www.bbc.co.uk/alteredstates>

   - New chapter for indie bookstores
Watch<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18256087>
   - The only way is up Watch <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18155405>
   - Emigrant influence Watch <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18081627>
   - A nation of wimps? Watch <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17963222>

 Dying wetland trees along Virginia's coastline are evidence that rising
sea levels threaten nature and humans, scientists say - and show the limits
of political action amid climate change scepticism.

Dead trees loom over the marsh like the bones of a whale beached long ago.

In the salt marshes along the banks of the York River in the US state of
Virginia, pine and cedar trees and bushes of holly and wax myrtle occupy
small islands, known as hummocks.

But as the salty estuary waters have risen in recent years, they have
drowned the trees on the hummocks' lower edges. If - when - the sea level
rises further, it will inundate and drown the remaining trees and shrubs,
and eventually sink the entire marsh.

That threatens the entire surrounding ecosystem, because fish, oysters and
crabs depend on the marsh grass for food.
 [image: Bryan Watts] Trees die as rising salt water soaks their roots,
Watts says

"These are just the early warning signs of what's coming," says avian
ecologist Bryan Watts, stepping carefully among the fallen pines.

The sea level in the Chesapeake Bay area and in south-eastern Virginia is
predicted to rise by as much as 5.2ft (1.6m) by the end of the century.

Ancient geologic forces are causing the land literally to sink, while the
amount of water in the oceans is increasing because of global warming,
scientists say.
 [image: Rivers]

As a result, the low-lying coastal areas - and the towns in it - are at
tremendous risk of flooding.

To address the problem, climate scientists, environmentalists and their
political supporters say the US must dramatically reduce its fossil fuel
emissions, while also taking steps to lessen the impact of coastal flooding
and wetland erosion.

"There is time to turn the ship around," says Michael Mann, a former
University of Virginia climate scientist, "but there is not a whole lot of
time."

But in Virginia's state capital Richmond, as in Washington, many
politicians remain sceptical about the extent to which humans are
responsible for global warming.

They fear measures needed to curb climate change would hurt the economy,
threaten private property, and harm commercial and industrial interests.

"Here in Virginia there is very little political will to address the
mitigation side of things - reducing our carbon footprint, reducing
greenhouse gas emissions," says Carl Hershner, who studies coastal
resources management at the Virginia Institute for Marine Sciences.

"There is a high degree of scepticism in the political and the general
public."

Virginia's attorney general, Republican Ken Cuccinelli, has waged an
aggressive public battle against the Obama administration's efforts to rein
in greenhouse gas emissions, which he said would drive up electricity costs
and kill jobs in the state's coal industry.
 Continue reading the main
story<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17915958#story_continues_2> A
battle in the climate war

In 2010, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli demanded access to
Michael Mann's grant applications and correspondence.

Mann was a prominent former University of Virginia climate scientist.

Cuccinelli said he was investigating whether Mann had committed fraud in
grant applications when he had said data showed a rapid rise in the earth's
temperature.

"The use of manipulated data to apply for taxpayer-funded research grants
in Virginia is potentially fraud," Cuccinelli said.

"This is about rooting out possible fraud and not about infringing upon
academic freedom."

But Mann and his supporters called Cuccinelli's move a politically
motivated attack on a high profile climate scientist.

The University of Virginia refused to give up the documents and hired a
lawyer.

Ultimately, the Virginia Supreme Court rejected Cuccinelli's demand for the
documents, saying he lacked authority.

While politicians in Washington and in Richmond, Virginia's state capital,
have done little to address the problem, authorities along Virginia's coast
have watched the waters rise and have been forced to take action.

The city government of Norfolk spends about $6m (£3.8m) a year to elevate
roads, improve drainage, and help homeowners literally raise their houses
to keep their ground floors dry, says Assistant City Manager Ron Williams.

About 5%-10% of the city's lowest-lying neighbourhoods are subject to heavy
flooding during storms. City planners do not currently recommend any areas
be abandoned to the tide, but "you have to have the conversation as you
look 50 years out", Mr Williams says.

At Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base, the US Navy is
spending hundreds of millions of dollars to replace aging piers with new
ones better able to withstand the rising water.

"Sea level rise was having a measurable impact on the readiness of the
ships," says retired Capt Joseph Bouchard, who was commander of the base
from 2000-2003. "And that's unacceptable."

So the Navy decided to replace the old piers with double-decked piers - one
for utilities, the other for the ship operations - with the upper deck 21ft
above current sea level.
 [image: Dying hummock] Dead trees ring the living ones as a hummock is
slowly inundated

"Were it not for sea level rise caused by climate change, the Navy could
have replaced those piers with single deck piers at much much less cost,"
he says.

Even a measure as ostensibly mild as funding for a flooding study was
fraught with climate change politics.

Senator Ralph Northam, a Democrat, and Chris Stolle, a Republican member of
the Virginia's lower House of Delegates, this year shepherded a resolution
through the legislature spending $50,000 on a comprehensive study of the
economic impact of coastal flooding on the Virginia and to investigate ways
to adapt.
 [image: Bryan Watts]

To pass the bill, at Stolle's suggestion Northam excised the words
"relative sea level rise" from an initial draft of the
bill<http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+SJ76>,
replacing them with "recurrent flooding" in the final
version<http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+SJ76ER>
.

Stolle says the change was necessary to ensure the bill focused on the
issues Virginia politicians can handle - flooding - and not those they
cannot address - global warming. In any case, "the jury's still out" on
mankind' s contribution to global warming, he says.

"Other folks can go argue about sea-level rise and global warming," Stolle
says. "What matters is people's homes are getting destroyed, and that's
what we want to focus on. To think that we are going to stop climate change
is absolute hubris. The climate is going to change whether we're here or
not."

Northam describes the change in language as pragmatic politics - necessary
to win support from conservatives sceptical of climate change science.

"If you mention climate change to them, it's like a big red flag," he says.
"A barrier goes up. That's the way it is here in the Virginia."
 [image: A map of the Norfolk area]
 More on This Story