During this time of quarantine because of the COVID-19 crisis, I have been living at my summer house in Chatham, Massachusetts. Cape Cod is in particular danger of climate change because we are surrounded by the ocean here. I have grown up living in Chatham for summers and before I ever learned about climate change and the damage it can do, I noticed the effects of it.
I remember coming back to Chatham every single June of every year of my life, and every year, the beaches would be drastically different. Chatham is the elbow of Cape Cod, where there are tons of beaches and islands just off the coast. One of them is Monomoy Island, along with south beach, north beach, and so many others. South beach is a very popular beach destination in the summer, however every year there is a new channel and a new beach. Climate change has been causing a lot more storms. All of the huge storms, the waves, wind, etc. have been hurting our beaches a lot. The rise in sea-level has also affected beaches and other coastal areas along the cape and it will continue to for a long time. The rise in sea-level and all of the storms have contributed a lot to a lot of other things too, like coastal wetlands being destroyed, especially salt marshes. Richard Delany said this in an interview with Wicked Local Chatham, “However with roads and parking lots [in the way] the marsh can’t migrate,” Naturally, salt marshes migrate towards land, however because of climate change and because of human civilization, like streets and parking lots being built, marshes are not able to migrate and they end up not surviving. 36% of Nauset salt marsh has disappeared since 1984, 25% of the marsh in Hatches Harbor, Provincetown has disappeared, and 42% of the marsh in Wellfleet’s Herring River system has disappeared, and this is all because of climate change. The president of the Center for Coastal Studies, Richard Delaney, had a few remarks about climate change, one of them was this, how he really does think that if we can’t find any solutions to climate change, our world will be a lot different.“Climate change is a moral problem for humanity and I hope we make a wise decision about the future of the planet,” he said. “It will be a drastically changed world if we don’t take some action.” One of Richard Delaney’s main focuses is to educate people, make people aware, and when they see what is happening to our own planet, they will want to change their habits and they will want to do anything they can, to make our planet healthy again. Richard Delaney and all of the organizations that are climate change related on the cape are also concerned about the ocean as a whole. Since Cape Cod is surrounded by water, by the ocean, it is very important to us and it is a big part of our lives here. Delaney also said this, “We are so connected to the ocean. Half of the oxygen we breathe is created in the ocean. There is a lot of phytoplankton in the first few millimeters. So if we do a profound chemical change to the ocean we’ve affected a key component (of life),” He said this in concern for the whole entire ocean, every ocean, and place on land that is affected by damages done to the ocean, and it is particularly important for us here on Cape Cod, because half of the oxygen we breathe, comes from the ocean.
To act on all of the climate change issues in Cape Cod, several organizations have been founded. There are organizations like these all over Cape Cod. One that I came across is the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative. They have volunteers, groups, stories, members, articles, and many other things that educate and act on climate issues in Cape Cod. This organization, along with many others hold events and gather people to do beach clean ups, fundraising, and so many other things. A lot has been done on the cape to prevent and try to slow down climate change through all of these non-profit organizations however we know that sea-level rises are coming and we know that more storms are coming. To help with that, there are a lot of areas of Cape Cod that don’t allow houses to be built there or sometimes they don’t even allow people to walk along these areas. These areas are protected for birds and to keep nature around, they are also there because if and when the sea-level rises, whatever is built there would be underwater. There are a lot of issues regarding climate change in my local area of Chatham, Massachusetts, however there are also a lot of people and companies that are trying to fix those issues. It is a lot of work, and requires a lot of patience, and Cape Cod may suffer greatly from the consequences of climate change, but I do believe that if we work together and if we educate people in our areas, we can get to where we want to be.
Sources:
- https://capecodclimate.org/noaa-nasa-find-2019-was-second-warmest-year-on-record/
- https://chatham.wickedlocal.com/news/20190413/cape-has-front-row-seat-for-climate-change
- https://www.massclimateaction.org
- http://www.waquoitbayreserve.org/wp-content/uploads/10_Thieler-Future-SLR-and-Coastal-Change-on-Cape-Cod.pdf
- https://www.capecodcommission.org/our-work/climate-change/
- https://chathamwaterways.org/wp/
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