Greenpeace Uses Camp Demo As Global Warming Reminder

            CHATHAM --- The demolition of several North Beach camps recently served as a backdrop for a photo opportunity to raise awareness about global warming by members of the Massachusetts chapter of Greenpeace.

            Eight Greenpeace volunteers and a photographer traveled to the beach in stormy weather and unfurled a banner reading “Global warming looks like this.”

            Field organizer David Pomerantz said he was aware of the cyclical nature of erosion of the Nauset barrier beach system and that the demolition of the camps was necessitated by recent storms.  The scene of coastal homes being dismantled, however, is something Greenpeace believes will be repeated if global warming continues and sea level rises.

            “We’re not trying to say that this one storm was caused by global warming,” he said. “But what we do want to say is that all the science points out, if we don’t prevent catastrophic sea level rise due to global warming, we’re going to see damage like this throughout the Cape and Islands and Massachusetts.”

            Greenpeace has identified global warming as its top priority in the United States, Pomerantz said, and is mobilizing volunteers in all 50 states to push government to address the issue.  He cited several studies that showed that Massachusetts, and the Cape and Islands, would be hit hard by sea level rise caused by global warming.  One way to showcase the problem is to highlight examples of what could happen if the predictions are realized.  “We’re going to see more and more scenes like this in the future,” he said of the beach camp demolition.

            “Regardless of the barrier beach cycles,” he added, “there is a lot of property and people’s way of life that will be dramatically changed by sea level rise on the Cape and Islands due to global warming, unless we can avoid going over some climate tipping point, which we still have a window to do, but would require leadership from the United States.”

            Sea level rise has been a factor here for centuries, said Coastal Geologist Dr. Graham Giese.  “Cape Cod has eroded back miles” from the land mass originally left by glaciers in the Pleistocene Era.  Records show that sea level has continued to rise throughout the past century, but at least part of that has nothing to do with climate; subsidence, or the relatively sinking of the land, is also a factor, said Giese. Rising ocean levels combined with subsidence is referred to as relative sea level rise.

            “Certainly relative sea level rise plays a very important role in all our processes, including this [Nauset barrier beach] cycle,” Giese said.  The cycle of beach erosion and rebuilding seems to run every 100 to 150 years.

            Sea level rise must be considered in decisions about coastal activities, homes, infrastructure and beaches, Giese suggested.  “We have to keep that in mind. There’s no question we have relative sea level rise,” he said.  If publicity such as the Greenpeace action helps raise awareness, “all the better.”

            Pomerantz wants the photos to remind people that the global warming and sea level rise “isn’t just about polar bears.  It’s about real people’s lives.”

7/16/09