Rising sea levels prompt search for solution
'People will have to decide what to protect'
By Christina Jedra
After a lecture about rising sea levels by oceanographer John Englander Saturday afternoon, attendees were left asking: Now what?
"We know this is going to happen," said Mary Carol Shannahan of Talbot County. "What will we do to be ready?"
Englander's presentation to over 500 people at St. John's College, a part of the city's Weather It Together initiative, was a call to action in the face of flooding the speaker said is both inevitable and permanent .
Parts of Annapolis could be covered in more than 6 feet of water in the next century, he said, and the city should prepare by elevating buildings or moving them away from the shoreline.
"Plan for the first 3 feet of sea level rise as soon as possible," Englander said. "You can run, or you can preserve this place."
Englander is a consultant and the author of "High Tide on Main Street: Rising Sea Level and the Coming Coastal Crisis." He said similar difficulties are coming in other coastal communities, and will be much more dire in some - Miami, for instance.
Attendees were invited to brainstorm on solutions.
Should a sea wall be installed to block off the bay? one audience member asked.
"It would be the biggest engineering project in the world to date," Englander said.
He said that while slowing climate change should be a goal, handling the effects of the global warming already in progress needs to be a priority.
No matter how much someone bikes to work or lowers the home thermostat, an individual "can do nothing to slow the sea level rise," he said.
Lisa Craig, the city's chief of historic preservation, said the event was attended by people from across the state, including activists, waterfront residents, design firms, Riverkeepers and insurance and real estate representatives.
"The topic means something to people," Craig said.
She said she wants to see Annapolis "build resilience" through planning.
Ken Addison, 80, said Annapolis should redesign the waterfront to cope with more than the 3 feet of flooding Englander suggested.
"We should plan for more," said Addison, who lives in Heritage Harbour. "It's a colossal civil engineering exercise."
Dan Helfrich, an environmental activist who lives in Severna Park, said the politics of adapting the Annapolis waterfront could get ugly.
"There will be some sacrifices and people will have to decide what to protect," he said. "It'll be a painful process."
"You can run, or you can preserve this place."
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