Retreat From the Sea part 1—Dr A.R. Siders on sea level rise & coastlines—Radio Ecoshock 2019-09-25
Channel: Stop Fossil Fuels
Date: 2020-05-16

Sea level rise is baked into the cake now. Greenland and Antarctica are melting, as are all other land glaciers. We are committed to a world where ports and port cities become swamped, delta farmlands become invaded by salty water, and maps of the coastlines have to be updated every ten years. Will we wait until the next storm surge wipes out homes and infrastructure? Will we dumbly try to rebuild everything while pretending sea level rise is not real? Will we wait to panic  or plan a retreat that makes sense?

Coming up, the first in a two-part series called “Retreat from the Sea”.

Show by Radio Ecoshock, reposted under CC License. Episode details at https://www.ecoshock.org/2019/09/7-degrees-c-by-2100-possible-new-science.html

Stop Fossil Fuels researches and disseminates effective strategies and tactics to halt fossil fuel combustion as fast as possible. Learn more at https://stopfossilfuels.org

SHOW NOTES

Siders's latest paper, published in the journal Science, is “The Case for Strategic and Managed Climate Retreat: Why, where, when, and how should communities relocate?“. The full paper is at https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6455/761#BIBL

I think it is worth passing on this summary of the recent work by A.R. Siders:

“Faced with global warming, rising sea levels, and the climate-related extremes they intensify, the question is no longer whether some communities will retreat  moving people and assets out of harm’s way  but why, where, when, and how they will retreat. To the extent that retreat is already happening, it is typically ad hoc and focused on risk reduction in isolation from broader societal goals.

It is also frequently inequitable and often ignores the communities left behind or those receiving people who retreat.

Retreat has been seen largely as a last resort, a failure to adapt, or a one-time emergency action; thus, little research has focused on retreat, leaving practitioners with little guidance. Such a narrow conception of retreat has limited decision-makers’ perception of the tools available and stilted innovation.

We propose a reconceptualization of retreat as a suite of adaptation options that are both strategic and managed. Strategy integrates retreat into long-term development goals and identifies why retreat should occur and, in doing so, influences where and when. Management addresses how retreat is executed. By reconceptualizing retreat as a set of tools used to achieve societal goals, communities and nations gain additional adaptation options and a better chance of choosing the actions most likely to help their communities thrive.”

See also the article “The case for retreat in the battle against climate change” published August 22, 2019 as a news release from the University of Delaware. And check out the research article published May 1, 2016 “The Case for Retreat” by Liz Koslov in “Public Culture”. That article documents the buy-out programs announced by New York Governor Cuomo after Hurricane Sandy.

Liz Koslov writes:

“Retreat is distinct from other kinds of climate-related migration in that it entails not just relocating a group of people but also unbuilding land and returning it to nature in perpetuity.”

Bangladesh has a policy for internal displacement, called “The Peninsula Principles“.

In the interview, we also discuss the case of Kivalina Alaska, which had to retreat from crumbling houses and infrastructure, largely driven by climate change. They sued Exxon-Mobil as major providers of those greenhouse gases through fossil fuels. But he Courts rules the Alaskan natives had no standing to sue. The possibility that big oil companies could be sued for climate damages was not resolves (it never got that far in court). So that is still a possibility in the future. See the paper by our guest: Siders Anne. 2012. “Ninth Circuit Affirms Dismissal in Kivalina v Exxon-Mobil.” Climate Law Blog, September 26.

The popular press is waking up to this growing need to move away from the coast. But big real estate developers, all the folks invested in seaside property, and the banks holding those mortgages are hoping you don’t find out too much. When Hurricane Sandy wiped out communities in Staten Island, residents organized “buyout groups”. But politicians from New York  like State Senator Chuck Schumer and then mayor Micheal Bloomberg  were against it. Schumer said the drive to rebuild on those exposed shorelines “shows the spirit of New York”.

Personally, I am pessimistic about governments and the public getting behind action before communities are wiped out. These days government don’t get much done even after those disasters. Isn’t it just as possible that victims of storms and sea flooding will just migrate without much help, as a lot of former New Orleans resident did after Hurricane Katrina?