https://time.com/6242869/new-jersey-town-sea-wall-climate-action/
"North Wildwood, a picturesque resort town of 5,000 on the Jersey shore, says
it is about to lose its war against coastal erosion. Since the 1980s, the
Atlantic ocean has washed away some 1,500 ft. of beach that once sat in front
of North Wildwood’s boardwalk, with rising sea levels and increasingly violent
wind and rain accelerating the process in recent years. Today, just 30 ft. of
sand dunes separate buildings from the waves—and months remain in the
Nor’easter season. “One good storm is going to wipe this dune out,” says Mayor
Patrick Rosenello. “It could be gone in six hours.”
But for the moment, Rosenello says, North Wildwood is being left to battle
alone. In October, New Jersey’s department of environmental protection (DEP)
denied the town’s request to build a metal bulkhead as a barrier behind the
remaining dunes, arguing that there is no imminent threat of loss of life or
“severe loss of property.” The department says the project could worsen erosion
long term for North Wildwood and its neighbors, and destroy fragile wetland
ecosystems. It wants the town to wait for a federally-funded dune-building
project that has been mired in delays for more than a decade.
On Dec. 6, after Rosenello said North Wildwood would build the bulkhead with or
without state permission, New Jersey filed a lawsuit, asking a judge to block
construction.
Rosenello says North Wildwood has no choice but to take matters into its own
hands. “You’ve got folks who claim that they believe in climate science and
resilience, but they are having a very hard time turning those beliefs into
real world projects,” he says. “We are left as the victims of that failure.”"
Via Kimi Wei and Dave Farber.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
