Two High Risk Coastal Views

Abstract

Orrin H. Pilkey and Keith C. Pilkey. Sea Level Rise: A Slow Tsunami on America’s Shores Duke University Press, Durham NC and London 2019 This is the third book on sea level rise involving Orrin Pilkey. Two of the three past books were co-written by Keith Pilkey. The Rising Sea covers the mechanics of sea level rise, global warming skeptics, and the global impact. Retreat from the Rising Sea covers aspects of sea level rise and the retreat from the shore. This recent book Sea Level Rise (Pilkey and Pilkey 2019) addresses the impact of sea level rise in the USA with a few occasional references to international sea level rise. The Pilkeys (with others) have also co-written several books on coastal zone planning issues for the geographic shore areas of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, East Florida, West Florida, Louisiana, Maine, South Carolina, North Carolina Barrier Islands, Texas, Chesapeake Bay/Virginia, and Alaska. Gaul states in the introduction of his book that it is in part a meditation on the question of risk: How much should be private; how much public? (Gaul 2019, p. 7) making it an equity issue. Like the Pilkeys’ book, Gaul’s book focuses on the increasing vulnerability of US coastal areas to the increasing risk of storm damage and increasing water levels. Unlike Pilkeys’ book, Gaul’s book focuses on a more detailed historical look at coastal development patterns over time in Long Beach, NJ; Mobile Bay, AL; Tampa Bay, FL; and Charlestown, SC. The Pilkeys have been looking at such issues for a long time and have a broader outlook. Gaul has done extensive document research and interviews to document the political ecology of coastal development events and actions that have increased risk and cost of US coastal communities subject to climate-induced storm and water level damage. Chapter one of the Pilkeys’ book addresses coastal climate refugees in the USA as well as the plight of global climate refuges. Specific American hot spots covered include Atlantic Inner Banks, South Florida, and the Mississippi River Delta. Chapter two covers the native populations who live above the Arctic Circle in what are now Canada and Russia as well as other Alaskan native groups. Loss of sea ice, rising water levels, and erosion impacts are discussed in terms of their impact on native ways of life and community infrastructure. Lessons learned from the fast-paced impacts on native groups may apply to other more temperate coastal communities. Chapter three addresses the so-called “sunny day flooding” or tidal and nuisance flooding and its effects on US coastal communities. Specific references of such flooding trends are covered for Washington, DC; Norfolk, VA; St. Petersburg, FL; and Miami Beach as well as what each community is doing to combat these events. Chapter four addresses human health and pollution issues from rising coastal water levels. Chapter five addresses the vulnerability of US military bases to rising water levels. Chapter six addresses the ecological and physical impacts of rising water levels on specific coastal environments such as atolls, Arctic shores, rocky shores, deltas, barrier islands, and beaches. This chapter also addresses the challenges posed by physical stabilization attempts. Chapter seven covers the impact of surging coastal water levels on animals, plants, salt marshes, and coastal agriculture. Chapter eight addresses the impact of shoreline water level increase and storms affecting infrastructure such as power plants, wastewater and stormwater control, saltwater intrusion, transportation systems, and electronic communication infrastructure. Chapter eight addresses “cities on the brink”—potential impacts to coastal US cities. Specific cities covered include Seattle, San Francisco Bay, Southern California, Houston, Tampa/St. Petersburg, New Orleans, Miami, Charleston, Norfolk, New York, and Boston. The focus of this chapter is the degree to which each of these urban areas is addressing coastal resiliency issues—or not. * Richard Smardon [email protected]; http://www.esf.edu/faculty/smardon