Bernie Sanders wants to declare climate change a national emergency and has an aggressive plan that gives us the best hope to transform our energy system and provide US leadership to the rest of the world. Oh wait, he's a socialist. Nevermind.
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In addition to seizing their land hundreds of years ago, and destroying their environment, the latest intrusion has been building homes on what was known to be sacred burial grounds. We know that in some cases bones were found and discarded!! New York is one of only 4 states without a state law to protect native American Burial grounds and artifacts.
However, I am optimistic! The current Southampton government is working in concert with the Tribal Council to safeguard the land. They have purchased land known to be burial grounds, and within a few week will (I hope and expect) introduce town legislation to require archaeology to determine if any graves are present. It starts with ground penetrating radar and proceeds to minimal excavation if bones are found (to determine if they are human). If present, no building will occur.
The Town Council, under Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, has taken these steps, which are long overdue. As I said, I am optimistic and will keep the pressure on to support this good and moral work.
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Maybe the toughest part of climate disruption to deal with...the realization that the “coast” is now 25 miles further inland...on the bright side, beachfront in Wichita can be had at a premium.
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The immediate tendencies of many when confronted by beach erosion is to buttress their properties with seawalls and rock. At best these are temporary fixes that may work for awhile but are doomed to the eventuality of rising seas. They also give the ocean an edge at which to scour the beaches of sand. Then there are the types of interventions the Shinnecock are employing. Restoring the natural systems that are effective at mitigating the effects of storm surges and the daily pounding oceans deliver to shorelines should be employed wherever possible along U.S. coast lines.
Unfortunately we currently have a president who has never met marshland he wouldn't drain to build on or an estuary that couldn't use use a bunch of high end homes on it if there is a profit to be made.
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@richard wiesner
Of the relative sea rise, at least 75% is from land subsidence, not from sea level increases. Barrier islands frequently wash away to be replaced by others.
The south shore of Long Island proper consists of many wetlands that were filled in and then built upon. those lands are sinking, since they were never meant to be. Those wetlands used to serve as a buffer against flooding inland and also reduced the effect on the barrier islands south of them.
The problems are man made. But they have nothing to do with fossil fuel consumption.
To the extent the federal government should be doing anything, it should be to determine if federal resources should be expended protecting the property values of the Pruetts of Southampton or whether filled in areas should be returned to their natural state.
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The south shore of Long Island is sinking.
I recall this information from a “Rocks for Jocks” Geology 101 lecture at Cornell 60 years ago about “isostatic rebound”. As the thickness of glacial ice built up over Ontario, the additional weight pushed down on the northern land surface. The underlying mantle rock oozed away, causing a “fore-bulge” to the south, which pushed up that southern land surface – temporarily on a geologic time scale. When the glacier melted, the exposed land surface to the north rebounded while the southern fore-bulge began to drop back down.
The “hinge” was near present-day Long Island, with the north shore continuing to slowly rise, while the south shore sinks.
This part of the lecture provoked laughter and jeering among the many Cornell freshmen from Long Island who knew which neighborhood high schools were rising or sinking.
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The basic message: Don't buy beachfront in the Hamptons. We were looking at something on the bay in Sag Harbor, and thought the better of it. This winter there were stretches of time when our would-be neighbors could not drive up the road to get to their houses.
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@Jan nope, that self-absorbed response was not the basic message at all.
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Yes --here we go again---short term thinking to build sea walls vs more natural solutions---despite years of research that hard construction protection--dams , dikes walls etc clearly harm other parts the the ecosystem....Eric need the authority to put teeth behind his laudable dissuading efforts. Otherwise the battle will be lost especially for the more vulnerable --in this case the Shinnecock Nation.
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There is a new PBS documentary just out about the Shinnecock nation and their situation in Long Island I highly recommend: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/conscience-point/
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"....which is why, said Eric Shultz, head of Southampton’s board of town trustees, officials are trying to dissuade residents from building new sea walls."
Lots of luck dissuading America's criminal class.
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All hail the Shinnecocks, a mercilessly abused people by refusing to surrender, to money or nature.
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iN the 60's multigenerational residence on LBI watched in horror as some new arrivals built multimillion dollars houses on the beach mowing down the dunes for the view. These dunes were created by nature over humdreds of years fortified each season with a web of new deeper roots.
After a few storms that washed houses away, they hired tractors to pile up sand thinking that was a dune that would protect.
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Let's support A Trillion Trees too.
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Seems to me this is much like Nero fiddling while Rome burned! Like their many fellow original inhabitants of our land they can't 'make America great again' because we immigrants have stolen their land! Yes do work w'the wind & tide rather than against it as our Army Engineers do, what else is left to them?
Not one comment about the fact that these proud people, reduced to less than 2 miles of land, are watching it be swallowed by the sea largely because of the actions of the invaders of their land who 'gave' them that small patch!
I just lost the house & land bought by my parents some 60 years ago for the same reasons......but here you have an entire nation of people who, like those nations all over the world who are losing their home land!
Yet we call those who are fighting for a 'Green New Deal' and folks like Bernie Sanders 'extreme' because they talk of 'extreme' actions like no more fossil fuels NOW not someday in the future. Movies like 'Cowspiracy' are laughed about b/c they advocate severe cut-backs of animal agriculture, we how advocate for plant based eating, &/or a Vegan life style are laughed at and 'trolled' on social media!
How many articles like THIS will it take???????
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@Karen
Sixty years ago your parents bought land that was sinking. It is hard to imagine what you expect people in Tennessee or the president to do about the sinking land of Long Island. It has nothing to do with the burning of fossil fuels or cows.
The natural subsidence is aggravated by the fact that when the population of Long Island expanded after WWII, the new residents pumped drinking water out of the shallow aquifers below. In addition to increasing the rate of sinking, and allowing salt water incursion into the aquifers, the septic systems contaminated the ground water.
Not to fault your parents from buying sinking land, how is this different from the people of Pompeii losing their homes when Vesuvius erupted? Except you had warning that your inheritance was sinking into the ocean.
That you think AOC and Bernie are going to preserve your property values on Long Island is silly.
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Thank you for a lovely article. The Shinnecock Indians are using nature to fight the rising sea in Eastern Long Island. Overpopulation and pollution caused by humans are root causes of global warming and the rising sea, according to about 99% of credentialed climatologists. Edward O Wilson of Harvard has written that some scientists think that the right population for the planet is perhaps 4 billion, or approximately half of the 7.6 billion we are at now. I am currently reading “A Distant Mirror,” by Barbara Tuckman, about Europe in the 14th century, and how it dealt with the Bubonic Plagues that wiped out roughly half of Europe’s population. The doctors then said it was caused by the planets. Most common people were sure it was God’s punishment for unpardonable sins. The coronavirus is a reminder that God, or nature, works in mysterious ways. It is a tragedy, that such modern plagues might help mitigate the onset of global warming and the sixth extinction of species. We have only decades to reduce our carbon dioxide and green house gas footprint to zero, or see the wrath of God again, as in 1348. If you are a Franciscan Christian, or an environmentalist of any persuasion, that believes in the sanctity of all forms of life, and values non-human species, you have to be torn, when the plague comes knocking at your door. As you and some of your loved ones die a wretched death, you can temper your despair. The silver lining is that it might, possibly be for a greater good.
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The Shinnecock people face a Sysiphean task. Their tribal heritage is at risk, which is particularly acute with regard to their old tribal burial grounds. I wish them well with their efforts to muster natural elements to lessen the forces of Nature, but I recommend that they consider building more resilience into their overall mitigation strategy.
Long Island’s tidal ecosystem has been walloped with major changes. Invasive Phragmites has replaced sea grasses. Public roads near the shore are regularly flooded. The once abundant shellfishery has been decimated by algal blooms, changes in historic ph levels, and ever increasing nutrient loading from outdated sanitary systems and the continued use of nitrogen rich lawn fertilizers.
Unfortunately for the Shinnecocks, the challenges they face go beyond the boundaries of their reservation. What’s needed is an island-wide strategy that addresses all of these problems. There must also be an acceptance of the reality that our natural world is undergoing significant changes that will require more resilience than throwing public money into endless efforts to keep sandy beaches from shifting as they will continue to do.
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I'm always interested in learning about ways people are working _with_ nature, rather than against it, to control erosion and manage property responsibly.
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From the article: “It all depends on how fast the sea comes in, basically.”
From a conversation held last year with Michael Mann and Richard Alley who is the most respected glaciologist in the US. A few comments by Alley below.
“If we don’t change our ways we’re expecting something like 3 feet of sea level rise in the next century, and it could be 2 and it could be 4 and it could be 20.
The chance that we will cross thresholds that commit us to loss of big chunks of West Antarctica and huge sea level rise is real.
So when you start doing “Well you’re not sure,” but there’s a chance of really bad things and the uncertainties are mostly on the bad side, could be a little better or a little worse or a lot worse, but we’ll be breaking things.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2yclMcDroQ&feature=youtu.be&t=47m4s
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Much appreciation to the Shinecock nation for your leadership; may many others be inspired to adopt similar solutions. And thank you NYT for covering this: may I suggest a series of nature-based climate solutions articles from different countries and ecosystems, so we can learn from many different approaches?
For example, for those interested in supporting similar nature based climate adaptation work in Central America, to help stem the climate related disasters which are a major cause of the waves of migration in recent years, please check out www.ecoviva.org. EcoViva has been supporting locally led solutions to these issues for years.
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Thank you for this article that features actual environmental stewardship.
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As a former Long Islander myself, it would be good for this common sense program to be expanded to more of the island, or else there won't be much left. And yes, millionaires that share the shores should start helping to pay for it, rather than just building more concrete buttresses.
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This article about the resourcefulness of the Shinnecock Nation community brightened my day. Climate change can seem so overwhelming but these achievements show it's possible to be an agent of positive change.
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