I Won't Be Here

Our summer weather (not climate) has been unusually pleasant.  Hot but not hotter than hell, humid but not a sauna, and as a result we have enjoyed being outside for a change.  The other day my dear spouse wanted to "run the motor" on the boat to make sure it was still working.  (He really wanted an excuse to fish the Bay.)  We hadn't used the boat in weeks and he gets nervous if it sits/hangs on the lift too long.

The weather was predicted to have clear skies and the wind was minimal so we decided to take a longer trip across the Bay, and burn our share of fossil fuels,  a twenty minute ride to the other side which is part refuge and part old-school fishing village.

We first visited an eagle's nest.  The eagles had fledged months ago, but the nest remained in stark contrast against the sky.

The coast line is mostly marsh which is home to red-wing black birds, boat tail blackbirds, marsh wrens herons, and marsh ducks.  Most of the birds were not there when we coasted in.  You can see the crow(?) on the left snag in the photo above checking out the eagle's nest.  He is probably remembering a number of arguments on the wing as he chased the eagle incessantly this past spring.  I have seen three crows gang up on a bald eagle and cause him to have an emotional breakdown.  Really!  He/she sat crying on a lower branch of a tree in my back yard for twenty minutes that time.

Above we are cruising slowly into a wider mouth of a distant river off the Eastern side of the Bay.

On the other side of this river, the pine trees shown above have no lower branches because the trees that were on each side of them were hiding the inner trees from the sun.  What outer trees?  The ones that have now died and lay in the shrubs/small pines below.  These tall still-standing sentinels will be gone in a few years as well.

Above is a starker example.  Why are all these trees dying?  Old age?  Actually, this is real evidence of ocean rise, and brackish water intrusion to freshwater root systems.  Yes, the water levels are being measured by scientists and the water has been rising for quite some time.  Pines were the last to hang on at these little spots of high ground.

A new study ( by a NASA scientist who has studied the issue for decades) indicates that ocean rise is going to be even more dramatic than scientists thought.  Ten feet in fifty years is just one estimate, although bolder researchers say we will see dramatic coastal damage in fifteen years.  It is always an unpredictable thing, this research.  A Smithsonian scientist recently found that with marsh grass species one species likes a certain amount of the brackish water intrusion while another does not.  Scientists are always conservative in their approach to future predictions and welcome (intelligent) argument from their peers, so it may very well be worse than we hope.  If you do not live near the coast, it will still impact you because much of our industry and commerce happens near the coast in countries around the world.

Some people refuse to believe scientists.  These are the same people that questioned health experts about vaccines until we had a measles outbreak.  The same people that question researchers regarding dangers of living near fracking sites, even though an increase in fetal mortality has raised its ugly head.  Scientists "have ulterior motives" say politicians, who of course, have absolutely no ulterior motives nor expertise in the area.  A minority of scientists that are employed by the fossil fuel industry also chime in but I do question their motives since they are being paid by the fuel industry.  Even Senator Lindsey Graham, (R. SC) has seen the light and admits that we should listen to the experts, which seems to contradict the majority of his party's views.

What should you do?  What can you do?  Nothing.  You really can't do anything to slow this roller coaster ride now.   You are way to late to this crazy party.  You should have jumped on the bandwagon twenty years ago.  I talked to a scientist (researching this impact on the coastal grasses) the other day and he said that stopping CO2's emissions fully today would not show results for 30-40 years.  The ocean is currently absorbing all the heat and taking it deep below where it will be covered by glacial water from the big melt and it will be years and years before it gets released back into the air, all after ocean currents change dramatically, another long term impact of global warming.  Maybe it won't be so bad for me after all.  I don't live on an island.  My drinking water is 400 feet down, not 100 feet like most.  As a bleeding-heart liberal, I will miss all those cute little critters that crawl and fly and need the coast for their habitat and breeding.  Some of the more dire predictions envision turning London into an Atlantis!   By the way, if you have not seen Venice, Italy, you really should schedule a trip while it is still there or take up SCUBA lessons.  This is going to happen over decades and not fast enough to catch the attention of the reality TV generation that sees marriages dissolve in months, follows crazy celebrities crash and burn scenarios, and relishes how an other's life disappears in an instant.  I won't be here to see the transition anyway.  Maybe my grandchildren will be engineers, city planners, inventors, water chemists...we are going to need those big time!  And, yes, you can do something.  Tell your representatives, local, state and national, to begin planning for this transition NOW.