BREAKING news! Sperm Whale dies from plastic - retweet

 

Whale courtesy Wiki commons. 

 

For students of coastal and marine debris this is another very important case study of the tremendous damage being done by human activity and products.This is a retweet from SumofUs.  

"A sperm whale that washed up in Spain died after swallowing almost 60 different pieces of plastic dumped by the greenhouses that supply Tesco, Carrefour and Aldi. This 4.5 tonne whale was defeated by 17 kg of plastic waste, including two dozen sections of the transparent sheeting used to cover industrial greenhouses. 

There’s no excuse for these giant supermarkets' failure to ensure their suppliers recycle and safely dispose of their deadly waste — but as long as they’re given a free pass, plastic will continue to swamp our oceans each year, and more whales will die. Tell Tesco, Carrefour and Aldi and to make sure their greenhouses recycle or safely dispose of their waste. 

 Only about 1,000 sperm whales are left in the Mediterranean, and they feed near waters flooded by the greenhouse industry. Acre after acre of farmland in southern Spain is covered in reams of plastic sheeting to produce the perfect growing conditions for year round fruit and vegetables. Due to poor waste disposal, this plastic ends up floating in the Mediterranean. Now these whales are under threat from swallowing huge quantities of non-degradable plastics.
 
If we lose the whales, we disable an entire ecosystem — and all because grocery stores are too lazy to monitor their suppliers. Our supermarket chains could easily ensure that plastics used to grow our fruit and vegetables are disposed of correctly and recycled. But so far, they are walking away and counting their profits -- and as they do, our oceans and seas are dying.

 Let’s not let another whale die from too much plastic. Tell Tesco, Aldi and Carrefour to clean up their supply chains and stop their suppliers from dumping toxic plastics in to the Mediterranean. This isn’t the first time we’ve taken on the big supermarket chains. We came together to take on the might of Tesco in the UK when it was electronically tagging its workers, and we won a landmark campaign in the US demanding that Trader Joe’s help farm workers get paid a fair wage. Now we need to come together and take on Tesco, Aldi and Carrefour demand they help save the whales.
  http://action.sumofus.org http://bit.ly/18oyjq7

The question is always how much regulation it would take and by how many nations to start attacking this problem which has horrific health implications not just for marine life but for human as well.

"However, concerns about usage and disposal are diverse and include accumulation of waste in landfills and in natural habitats, physical problems for wildlife resulting from ingestion or entanglement in plastic, the leaching of chemicals from plastic products and the potential for plastics to transfer chemicals to wildlife and humans"  See "Plastics, the environment and human health: current consensus and future trends" The Royal Society.Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 27 July 2009 vol. 364 no. 1526 2153-2166 Richard C. Thompson1,*, Charles J. Moore2, Frederick S. vom Saal3 and Shanna H. Swan4 http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1526/2153.full


 

Superstorm Sandy Update

NBC news anchor Brian Williams was the guest of Meet the Press on October 27, 2013. Inhis report on conditions a year after Superstorm Sandy he raises several very important issues for students of coastal policy.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

First, he reviewed the level of destruction which we saw during the storm but which we may have forgotten already. Williams visited some beachfront areas where he had lived which were still in shambles

Second, Williams commented about "community" which is critically important because coastal neighborhoods are not "just" summer places and homes by the sea. These are sociological entities. There are social fibers that bind people to their community. There are cemeteries where ancestors are buried and generations of families have their roots. There are economic structures and institutions that empoly people and generated taxes.

Third, his comments about the future are of critical importance for students of coastal zone management.

For example, the response by property owners is largely to rebuild the beaches, waterfront and the homes JUST AS THEY where before the disaster. whether this is realistic or not is not clear but there has been significant push back against simply recreating the exiting land and seascape.

The second is the response of government to the disaster. This comes in two portions.

The first is that FEMA and other finding for disaster recovery has been too slow to come. Even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, much applauded after the disaster for his quick response and for chumming with Barack Obama to gain state/federal cooperation, has been criticized for not managing the recovery quickly enough. 

The second is a strong criticism by many beachfront property owners that government projects are placing barriers between them and the ocean view. These, in the form of high sand dunes and in some cases steel barriers, are widely opposed by folks whose view of the expansive beach and the Atlantic ocean is obstructed thus harming property values. 

Finally, Williams mentions the "retreat" option. This has been actually enacted in countries where property rights are much weaker than in the United States such as Venezuela as well as many European countries. Moving properties away from the storm surge and damaging winds further inland and to higher ground is, of course one "natural" option which returns shorelines to nature.

Hurricane Katrina was a shock and a huge challenge to people and to governments at all levels. Superstorm Sandy was a surprise. Even the Hurricane forecasting systems of the United States made a horrible mistake in not keeping the term "hurricane" when Sandy's strength subsided from hurricane force winds. That decision alone is blamed for people and governments not taking sandy as seriously as they should have.

So there are numerous important coastal policy lessons to be learned from Sandy a year after. Perhaps these lessons can help prepare better for future climate change challenges in the coastal zone.

Could New York City Subways Survive Another Hurricane?

When Superstorm Sandy hit new York with a massive storm surge a chain of events unfolded that included a heroic effort by subway workers to protect that vital lifeline from the worst damage.

The story of how New York's subway crews improvised and used their amazing experience and imagination to stem the tide of water, block the sea from surging through the blood-vessel like maze of tunnels and underground spaces that make up the hundred year old subway complex.

It is clear that New york City cannot survive as an economic and residential center without the subways. The New York Times article on what happened during Sandy's assault against the Big apple is an interesting case study for anyone who needs to create coastal scenarios for future human preparation for climate change and rising sea levels.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/magazine/could-new-york-city-subways-survive-another-hurricane.html

Is Miami, Florida Doomed?

(Photo courtesy of NOAA)

"By century's end, rising sea levels will turn the nation's urban fantasyland into an American Atlantis. But long before the city is completely underwater, chaos will begin."

We do nee to start thinking about coastal forecasting scenarios that may be unpalatable and even horrifying but should be part of the toolbox if ideas that we need to explore. Here is a scenario from the Rolling Stone article on Miami:

"When the water receded after Hurricane Milo of 2030, there was a foot of sand covering the famous bow-tie floor in the lobby of the Fontaine­bleau hotel in Miami Beach. A dead manatee floated in the pool where Elvis had once swum. Most of the damage occurred not from the hurricane's 175-mph winds, but from the 24-foot storm surge that overwhelmed the low-lying city. In South Beach, the old art-deco­ buildings were swept off their foundations. Mansions on Star Island were flooded up to their cut-glass doorknobs. A 17-mile stretch of Highway A1A that ran along the famous beaches up to Fort Lauderdale disappeared into the Atlantic. The storm knocked out the wastewater-treatment plant on Virginia Key, forcing the city to dump hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into Biscayne Bay. Tampons and condoms littered the beaches, and the stench of human excrement stoked fears of cholera. More than 800 people died, many of them swept away by the surging waters that submerged much of Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale; 13 people were killed in traffic accidents as they scrambled to escape the city after the news spread – falsely, it turned out – that one of the nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, an aging power plant 24 miles south of Miami, had been destroyed by the surge and sent a radioactive cloud over the city."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-the-city-of-miami-is-doomed-to-drown-20130620#ixzz2ilPBTQKv
 

"In 110 years, Miami as we know it will be a nearly ruined, flooded wasteland thanks to rising sea levels. That's one of the hypotheses of University of Washington professor and popular science writer Peter D. Ward's latest book, The Flooded Earth. The introductory chapter is titled "Miami Beached," and it's an apocalyptic vision of Miami succumbed to a ten-foot rise in sea level. The particulars of Ward's Miami nightmare are a thing of fiction, but the threat of a major rise in sea level wrecking the city, he says, is an unstoppable fact." Read More at Miami NewTimes 

"The Flooded Earth: Our Future In a World Without Ice Caps" is a frightening book to be sure but we cannot ingnore the projections from scientists and futurologists. Here is what Peter ward has to say: 

"Sea level rise will happen no matter what we do. Even if we stopped all carbon dioxide emissions today, the seas would rise one meter by 2050 and three meters by 2100. This—not drought, species extinction, or excessive heat waves—will be the most catastrophic effect of global warming. And it won’t simply redraw our coastlines—agriculture, electrical and fiber optic systems, and shipping will be changed forever. As icebound regions melt, new sources of oil, gas, minerals, and arable land will be revealed, as will fierce geopolitical battles over who owns the rights to them."

It is good to at least take into account the potential extremes of what might happen if global warming continues on the trajectory on which it is set.

 

Great Hurricanes and their Consequences

When disasters hit coastal areas these days lots of stuff gets destroyed and people's lives are deeply disrupted. That was probably always true except there were fewer people and less infrastructure on the coast the farther back we go in history.

The deadliest Atlantic hurricane was the Great Hurricane of 1780 which was also known as Huracán San Calixto, the Great Hurricane of the Antilles, or the 1780 Disaster, depending on who wrotes about this storm. Although data collection was sketchy in those days the estimate is that as many as 22,000 people died. Mújica-Baker, Frank. "Huracanes y Tormentas que han afectado a Puerto Rico". Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, Agencia Estatal para el manejo de Emergencias y Administracion de Desastres. p. 11.

On Sept. 8, 1900, a very powerful Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of more than 130 mph (209 kph), slammed into the shore at Galveston, Texas killing as many as 8,000 people. In the absence of a robust weather forecasting systems and since Galveston is an island with only one bridge to the mainland residents of the seaside resort town were caught off guard and trapped in the brutal tide surge, punishing winds, and ceaseless rain. However, the Weather Bureau did warn of a severe storm but as the record shows people in Galveston stayed to watch the fury and the huge surf not aware of the enormous risk. (Image courtesy of NOAA)

In 1928 the San Felipe-Okeechobee Hurricane hit Florida centering on the South Florida Lake Okeechobee. This storm caused a lake surge of 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 m) killing almost 2,000 people.

In 1935 before hurricanes were named, the so-called Florida Keys Labor Day Hurricane slammed into the state. Since measuring hurricanes was in its infancy we only knwo that this storm recorded pressure of 26.35 inches measured at Long Key, FL making this the most intense hurricane to hit the United States. 

There were other storms in 1969, Hurricane Camille, Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was the most damaging storm in U.S. history up to that date. Andrew, a Category 5 storm,caused $26.5 billion in damage, 23 deaths in the United States and three more in the Bahamas. Andrew had estimated winds of an astonishing 167 mph (269 kph). 

In 2004 Hurricane Charley killed 10 people in the United States and caused an estimated $14 billion in damages. The great increase in coastal infrastructure and residence made Charley the second costliest hurricane to date.  

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was only a Category 3 storm. However it was a huge storm and "...storm surge flooding of 25 to 28 feet (7.6 to 8.5 m) above normal tide level occurred along portions of the Mississippi coast, with storm surge flooding of 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6.1 m) above normal tide levels along the southeastern Louisiana coast. Ultimately, this storm surge was responsible for much of the damage as it flooded coastal communities, overwhelmed levees, and left at least 80 percent of New Orleans underwater. By the time the hurricane subsided, Katrina had claimed more than 1,800 human lives and caused roughly $125 billion in damages. It was the deadliest hurricane to strike the United States since the Palm Beach-Lake Okeechobee hurricane of September 1928."(LiveScience)

We have left out many other lesser storms that had terrible effects in the araes affected but were not at the scale seen above.

Hurricane Sandy which is more commonly called "Superstorm Sandy" was the second-costliest hurricane in United States history.
 
"One year after Hurricane Sandy devastated coastal New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, the broad signs of recovery are undeniable. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved 182,000 individual and household applications for assistance in the three states, totaling $1.4 billion. It has made $3.1 billion available to repair roads, bridges and other publicly owned property after one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. President Barack Obama signed a bill allocating $50.5 billion in disaster aid." Bloomberg (For full article)

Clearly the coastal zones of the Caribbean and the American Atlantic coast are the bulls eye for hurricanes and this area stretching from Central America, the Gulf of Mexico all the way to New England is expected to bear the brunt of growing climate change, sea level rise and the potential for increasingly powerful and devastating coastal climate events. (See NOAA images of before and after Sandy at Long Beach, New York below. For an EXCELLENT interactive site of more images at NOAA click here)

Massive and powerful storms have always slammed into the Caribbean and Atlantic coast of the United States. In the past when there areas where barely populated and there was meager infrastructure the storms were absorbed by the dunes, shifting barrier islands, mangroves, marshes and wetlands and other natural ecosystems which yielded to the fury. Eventually things went back to normal albeit with differently sculpted landscapes.

As soon as humans settled and developed these ecosystems all manner of artificial structures constructed by humans and people themselves got in the way of these natural events. It was only then that these enormous systems became disasters. Remember that if a tree falls in the forest but there is no one to see or hear it it will not be reported and it's as if it had never happened.

Louisiana Agency Sues Dozens of Energy Companies for Damage to Wetlands

JOHN SCHWARTZ (July 24, 2013) of the New York Times had an important report on the lawsuit by Louisiana against a number of of energy companies. Go here for the full article.

 

(c) 2013 Photo by Schmidt, Louisiana

 

We know that Louisiana is located at a fragile place place with vast wetlands that act as protective barriers against a relentless attack by the sea, storms, wind and rising sea levels against the coasts. 

Here is the quote that sums it all up:

“This protective buffer took 6,000 years to form,” the state board that oversees flood-protection efforts for much of the New Orleans area argued in court filings, adding that “it has been brought to the brink of destruction over the course of a single human lifetime.”

The lawsuit was filed in civil district court in New Orleans by the board of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East.  "The board argues that the energy companies, including BP and Exxon Mobil, should be held responsible for fixing damage done by cutting thousands of miles of oil and gas access and pipeline canals through the wetlands."

I have done research in these wetlands and no words can convey what a magnificent architecure of nature this is and how delicate the balance.

As we rode in an air boat down to the marsh we whipped through landscapes of moss covered trees, alligators sunning on the shore, a huge variety of birds and other critters. We flew over grassy marshes and stopped at the research spot where we were to collect samples and observe the behavior of the vast floating marsh.

When you step on this marvelous environment it's a strange sensation. As far as the eye can see there is grass and some small scrub. BUT you can feel the ground give under you because the whole thing is like a water bed!

What has happened to this environment?

"A 2012 report by the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority stated, “Dredging canals for oil and gas exploration and pipelines provided our nation with critical energy supplies, but these activities also took a toll on the landscape, weakening marshes and allowing salt water to spread higher into coastal basins.”

That's what this lawsuit is all about. We will be following this suit to see the outcome because the question is whether there is any responsibility for causing serious and potentially disastrous destruction of an irreplaceable ecosystem.

Our air boat on wetland during research trip. (c) 2013 Photo by Schmidt, Louisiana

Beachfront Property Resistance to New Strom Surge Protection

 Image courtesy Army Corps of Engineers

The headline caught my attention:

"Point Beach Oceanfront Homeowners Against Easements for Dune ProjectDEP says the Army Corps needs easements for beach replenishment project to protect private and public property" The Patch, August 15, 2013
http://pointpleasant.patch.com/groups/hurricane-sandy/p/point-beach-oceanfront-homeowners-balk-at-idea-of-signing-easements

This is one of the very interesting public policy issues facing coastal areas; homeowner property rights and their resistance to any changes in the beachfront configuration to protect against future storms. I have studied this issue for many years in Florida but especially Plum Island Massachusetts, a barrier island that is highly exposed and vulnerable to sea level rise. The owners of beachfront properties in this beautiful vacation and now 4 season residential community do anything in their power to stay on the beach and rebuild on the beach as more severe storms and higher surge chews away at their properties.

As a waterfront and beach owner I understand the love of the view. Nothing is more satisfying and "spiritual" than watching waves break and looking at the horizon. Beach property is so expensive precisely because you are literally at "land's end." NO ONE will build in front of you! You are the master of the horizon. 

Yet as a beachfront owner your property is also part of a larger community that starts with your neighbors to the left, the right, and behind your property. This, in my opinion, imposes on property owners a "civic responsibility" that is larger than the right to own property. This consists of an obligation to behave in such a way as to reduce harm to your neighbors and the larger community in which you live.

 After Superstorm Sandy government agencies from municipal to federal scrambled to design new best practices for shore protection. A federal task force that was "... convened by U.S. President Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy devastated much of the U.S. Atlantic Coast last fall released a report on Monday that included 69 recommendations for rebuilding storm-damaged areas and for reducing the impact of future severe storms." Nationalgeographic.com

One of the compelling finding of the report was that storm surges in the future may be more damaging party because iof sea level rise and also because the severity of storms is expected to increase with climate change.
Property owners are being asked in many places along the coast (New jersey, New York, etc.) to sign easements for projects by the Army Corps of Engineers to renourish beachs designed to create dunes to protect private and public property from the impact of future storms.

In the article from the above headline, property owners in Point Pleasant, New Jersey were found to resist signing the easement because they did not want tall dunes built on the ocean side of their homes because these would block their view on the first floor and were deemed to reduce property values. In prior cases just a few homeowners not allowing dunes to be built caused breaches in the storm protection system where the ocean penetrated through these unprotected stretches of beach and went on to cause havoc in the entire beachfront zone.

This issue, then, of conflicts between private goods and the public good represents one of the epic battles in the debate about coastal zone management and coastal policy. It is an area that deserves much more research into all aspects of the problem - the sociology of property, legal aspects of property rights, the ecology of shore protection, new technologies and geoengineering for coastal protection. Students of coastal zone management will find an endless and timely area of research in this area of scientific investigation for almost any marine and coastal discipline.

Also: See the wonderful film Anima Mundi about human society as seen by people from outer space by Peter Charles Downy.
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/11753/Anima-Mundi

 

Flosam & Jetsam, Marine Debris. A whole new area of great importance.

Many of you know that my son, coastal and environmental policy analyst Paul Schmidt and I launched a Marine Debris Science program in connection with the Nova Oceanographic Center in Dania Beach, Florida. That was several years ago. We had a chance to talk with the "Dean of Marine Debris" Curtiss Ebbesmeyer in Seattle and we are huge fans of the study of marine debris.

Now an announcement:

"Today, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) is launching the Marine Debris Clearinghouse, an online resource for the rapidly growing marine debris community to discover, explore, and apply knowledge in marine debris research and operations. This resource will benefit the nation’s coastal managers, researchers, policy makers, educators, industry, and communities studying to mitigate marine debris and its impacts."

Woo hoo!  This legitimizes the whole field of marine debris science and policy.

Check it out:

http://marinedebrisblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/clearinghouse/

We hope you'll use this site and contribute to it's objectives. Please let us know on this site what YOU are doing with marine flotsam.

Here is the "must buy" book on this subject:

http://flotsametrics.com/

This is a great summer read. Interesting, scientific, and fun.

Read this or Else! 

If you don't read anything else this year you MUST read the New York City report on Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to armor and protect the city against new threats from climate change and future "Superstorms."

Do it NOW.

Download it and put it on a very special place for your coastal policy resources.

It is good enough that I'm considering developing a new course around the report called "Climate risks and their Solutions for Supercities like New York."  Or maybe I'll just add to to "Coastal Futurology"


Steffen Schmidt


http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/downloads/pdf/npcc_climate_risk_information_2013_report.pdf

This report is titled:

Of course Bloomberg is an unusual person. Most mayors, governors, and legislatures would do the opposite - ban any discussion of "climate change" and global warming and other "left wing, radical environmentalist theories." I saw an article "State Laws Ignore Science." I also read a daunting column in Forbes magazine "Ignore Evidence. Deny Science. Minimize Problems. Then Cry 'Freedom!" Mayor Bloomberg was actually also part of that article in which food industry executives and otehrs accused him of creating a nanny state around the ban on large and very BAD sugary beverages. http://www.forbes.com/sites/robwaters/2013/05/22/ignore-evidence-deny-science-minimize-problems-then-cry-freedomand-invoke-the-nanny-state/

No one has gone further than the North Carolina legislature which wanted to prohibit the use of  sea level rise, climate change information in official documents. The reason? People might stop buying property and condo's in high risk beach areas of the state. Wow! Good idea! Then when their property gets damaged or wiped out run like little cry baby's to the state and the taxpayers and ask for others to pay for their risky building decision.

The trashing of "Big Government" is legitimate for many reasons. Yet government is the port of last refuge in a storm (do you like that weather analogy?!) when big trouble hits we all need help and government, the National Guard, the Reserves, the police and fire rescue, the Coast Guard, FEMA, the Federal Housing Agency (FHA) and others are critical resources even for small government types. 

Have you downloaded the NYC report yet? Why NOT!?

 

How Warm is it?

Carbon dioxide level reach record high

Steffen Schmidt

The news was everywhere on Friday, May 10, 2013. Reuters reported, “The amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million at a key observing station in Hawaii for the first time since measurement began in 1958, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. To many scientists, crossing the 400 ppm threshold” [there are 400 molecules of carbon dioxide for every million molecules in the air] is important mainly as a milestone according to James Butler of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/11/us-climate-carbon-idUSBRE9490YD20130511

Why is this so important?

Carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. That’s a problem. It also remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Where does it come from? Largely from coal burning power plants, cars, trucks, trains, and airplanes. These are all processes that have been growing exponentially. Germany is abandoning nuclear power, has built two new coal plants and is now building six more. Japan's Ministry of Environment is ending a ban on construction of new coal-fired power plants largely because of the nuclear power plant disaster following the tsunami of March 11, 2011. The Guardian reported that there are 1,200 coal-fired power plants on the books in 59 countries with about three-quarters in China and India. India is planning to build 455 new plants with 363 on the drawing board in China.

Japan, South Korea, Guatemala, Cambodia, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and Taiwan have coal-fired plants but produce almost no coal so they have to import it. That means shipping and we know that the current fleet of ships is extremely dirty in its emissions.

It’s important to note that the Earth's atmosphere hasn't had this much carbon dioxide in it for millions of years. We didn’t have any monitoring until very recently so we have to rely on indirect measures.

Carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. It is emitted by fossil-fueled vehicles and coal-fired factories and power plants as well as by natural activities such as breathing.

Reuters reports that, “Carbon dioxide concentrations at Mauna Loa, Hawaii are documented in a graph known as the Keeling Curve, named for Charles Keeling, who began measurements there in 1958, when the level was 317 ppm. Information on the Keeling Curve is available at keelingcurve.ucsd.edu.”(Image courtesy of Scripps Oceanography)

According to NOOA scientist Butler, “During the last 800,000 years, the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide fluctuated between 180 ppm and 280 ppm. With the widespread burning of coal and oil during the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide rose to about 290 ppm by the end of the 19th century …”

NOAA has a terrific animated graph that shows the rise in Carbon Dioxide. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/history.html

According to the Washington Post, “One of the main concerns with climate change is that it’s causing the oceans to advance. Global sea levels have risen about seven inches over the past century and that pace is accelerating. Not only does this threaten coastal regions, but it also makes storm surges much worse — both for huge hurricanes like Sandy and for smaller storms too.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/01/can-we-stop-the-seas-from-rising-yes-but-less-than-you-think/

There is still a lot of skepticism about all of this, which is surprising given the consistent and repeated evidence that the oceans are warming, rising, and that this will very likely have pretty disastrous consequences for coastal areas. Many conservatives and Republicans reject the idea that such a tiny amount of CO2 in the air, 0.04 percent, can make much of a difference. Others argue that since there was more CO2 millions of years ago the changes we are seeing are not caused by humans but by natural cycles or processes. Thus, there has been vigorous pushback against many policies directed at reducing CO2 emissions.

The coal and other fossil fuel industry is particularly articulate and well funded through lobbying organizations they have created. The absence of fast replacement fuels to drive vehicles and generate electricity has also delayed more vigorous action to contain and drastically reduce human CO2 emissions.

The Post article confirms, “at this point, it’s unlikely that we could stop further rises altogether. That’s the upshot of a recent study from the National Center on Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The study estimated that aggressive steps to cut emissions could reduce the amount of sea-level rise by somewhere between 6 and 20 inches in 2100, compared with our current trajectory. That’s quite a bit. But sea levels will keep rising for centuries no matter what we do. We can’t stop it entirely. We can only slow the pace.”

There is sensational information on what will happen in worst case scenarios which, to be clear, are forward projections by as much as 200 years. That may seem like a long time but in the perspective of the planet Earth and even in the very short history of humans on the planet it is really just a very tiny slice of time.

What might happen then as we project the effects of sea level rise?

According to NCAR models, by 2300 the sea levels could rise as much as 34 feet. Geology.com has a great interactive map that shows the consequences -  interactive map. Some examples of what this means include South Florida, which would be largely under the ocean. Other major cities that are wet under these levels of sea-rise are New Orleans, Venice, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Bangladesh. Even the Netherlands would be under water and it’s the model of “holding back the sea.” In fact, the Netherlands is often cited as an example of what the US should be doing for example regarding protecting New York City from rising water and storm surge.

Another important consideration is the increasing acidification of the ocenas. NOAA puts it very succinctly.

"Air-sea gas exchange is a physio-chemical process, primarily controlled by the air-sea difference in gas concentrations and the exchange coefficient, which determines how quickly a molecule of gas can move across the ocean-atmosphere boundary. It takes about one year to equilibrate CO₂ in the surface ocean with atmospheric CO₂, so it is not unusual to observe large air-sea differences in CO₂ concentrations. Most of the differences are caused by variability in the oceans due to biology and ocean circulation. The oceans contain a very large reservoir of carbon that can be exchanged with the atmosphere because the CO₂ reacts with water to form carbonic acid and its dissociation products. As atmospheric CO₂ increases, the interaction with the surface ocean will change the chemistry of the seawater resulting in ocean acidification." http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Carbon+Uptake

The following figure illustrates the different processes that affect air-sea gas exchange (Courtesy of NOAA.)

Given these very significant factors it's clear that any study of coastal zones MUST begin with a discussion of CO2 levels, sea level rise, and it’s consequences. This is the Holy Grail of coastal science because it has potentially the most profound impact on the world’s coastal zones.

“It feels like the inevitable march toward disaster,” said Maureen E. Raymo, a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a unit of Columbia University quoted in the New York Times.  

That's pretty serious business.  The impact of elevated CO2 levels on coastal zones and on the oceans is of great significance for students of coastal policy and science as well as for policymakers who are expected to consider bold ways of addressing this problem.

"Oh, Poop. What a Problem!"

There is a common expression when things go wrong:"Oh, Sh*t!" I will call it "Oh, Poop!"

As students of coastal policy we should use that expression more often. Poop, precisely speaking sewage is one of the great challenges facing coastal scientists, managers, planners, and, of course, stakeholders (human and marine or coastal life).

This will be one of the longest blog postings ever but you could say that poop deserves this in depth treatment! So here goes. (An updated version of this will be in our forthcoming book on Coastal Issues; Coastal Solutions.

Sewage and Coastal Areas (Picture courtesy NOAA)

A rarely discussed coastal zone issue is sewage.

It was called to our attention when reports emerged that Superstorm Sandy resulted in the release of 11 billion gallons of sewage from East Coast treatment plants (mostly New York and New Jersey) into streams, canals or roadways, according to a report by Climate Central. The report said that “The amount of sewage overflow during Sandy, 11 billion gallons, is equivalent to the entire area of Central Park [in New York City] — 843 acres/1.4 square miles — stacked 41 feet high with sewage or more than 50 times the BP oil spill.” See also Bloomber at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-30/sandy-s-sewage-spill-said-equal-to-a-41-foot-central-park-flood.html

The report further said, “Sandy showed the extreme vulnerability of the region’s sewage treatment plants to rising seas and intense coastal storms,” said Alyson Kenward, lead author of the report. Most experts expect seas to rise between 2 to 4 feet by the end of the century even if aggressive actions are taken to control emissions of greenhouse gases. New York and New Jersey officials estimate the cost of repairing damaged sewage infrastructure at about $3 billion. Many more billions will be needed to fortify and modify treatment plants to withstand the impact of future storms.” http://www.climatecentral.org/news/11-billion-gallons-of-sewage-overflow-from-hurricane-sandy-15924

In May of 2013 a fire hit a major New York sewage treatment plant. The New York Times reported, “The rivers that run into New York Harbor will be unfit for recreational activities at least through Sunday because of a catastrophic fire that shut down one of the city’s largest sewage treatment plants, the city’s health department said Thursday [May 2, 2013]”

New York, like all American cities and most around the world dumped its raw sewage directly into rivers, canals and the ocean. That’s a reminder of how much we disrespected our waterways and coasts throughout history when they were seen as transportation routes, garbage dumps and sewers.

New York built 14 sewage treatment facilities with money from the Clean Water Act (CWA) passed by Congress in 1972. The act established targets for eliminating the releases of high levels of toxic substances into water and amended in 1983 and 1985 to eliminate further pollution.

One of the key features of the Act is the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), a permit system for regulating point source pollution. Point source pollution includes industrial facilities such as manufacturing, mining, oil and gas extraction, and service industries; municipal governments and other government facilities including military bases; and agricultural facilities especially animal feedlots.

Part of the CWA included funding for sewage treatment facilities that include federal and state funding. The cost of sewage treatment especially on small municipalities is often prohibitive and represents one of the great challenges to improving America’s water quality. In coastal zones this still represents a serious problem. The reason is that water treatment is often located on the coast or on rivers and other aqueous ecosystems. That is primarily because the concept is still that is or when a spill happens it will go into the water, which will eventually dilute the raw sewage.

Climate Central explains that, “Sewage treatment plants are usually placed near water in low-lying areas so that sewage can be piped to the plant via gravity and treated sewage can be easily discharged into receiving waters. These key factors in plant locations make them especially vulnerable to storm surges and coastal flooding. Compounding the inherent risk of their low-lying locations, many treatment plants have expansive, underground labyrinths of pipes, holding tanks and pumps that can remain waterlogged and incapacitated long after floodwaters recede. They also typically discharge their treated wastewater through large underwater pipes, which can cause facilities to flood from the inside as waters rise, long before the surface water levels overrun the outside of the structures.” That is true not just in the United States but in any city around the world that is located on the coast.

New York City has nearly 600 miles of coastline and these were once pristine, then became completely polluted, and eventually cleaned up and made useable for humans and marine life friendly again.

The San Diego UT reported on a spill caused by an earthquake. “A spill of more than 1.5 million gallons of raw sewage in Playas de Tijuana prompted the Tuesday closure of beaches on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The incident was the result of damage to a large pipe known as the Farallon Collector, which is located about three-fourths of a mile south of the international border. The damage apparently was caused by Sunday’s earthquake swarm centered about 90 miles away in Brawley, Baja California authorities reported.” Aug. 28, 2012 http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/aug/28/tj-sewage-spill-fouls-coast-near-border/

Two million gallons of partially treated sewage and storm water were dumped into the San Francisco Bay in 2008. The cause was not a fire in the engine room but a pump failure accompanied by a failure of the alarm system that is supposed to immediately warn operators.

Most of us have forgotten that the City of Los Angeles was sued in 2003 by local environmental groups including the Santa Monica Baykeeper and by state and federal officials because of 3,670 sewage spills over a ten-year period. Think of that number of spills. It’s enormous and the impact on the environment unconscionable. The city admitted liability for these spills. A federal judge ruled that these spills were in violation of the Clean Water Act.

In 1987 ten beaches in the New York City area were closed when hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage flowed into Hempstead Harbor as a result of a pump failure at a sewage treatment plant.

In 1988, over 9.5 million gallons of untreated sewage flowed into New Bedford Harbor, Massachusetts. As is frequently the case the cause was a power failure at a city sewage treatment plant. According to the Associated Press, “The spill forced the closing of 500 acres of shellfish beds by the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. The plant, built in 1970, has broken down frequently and ''is one of the major lemons of the waste water treatment business,'' Mayor John K. Bullard said.

One of my students recently did a study of Florida sewage issues. She found an article Sewage spills on the rise in Southwest Florida, which reported that “Major plumbing failures and accidents sent nearly 17 million gallons of raw sewage — enough to cover a square mile with waste a foot deep — cascading into Southwest Florida neighborhood streets and vital waterways.” The Herald-Tribune


This is a disturbing picture in a state that relies on tourism and retirees who move to Florida for the beauty of the environment and the climate. It is there fore even more disturbing to realize that Florida has been doing very little to address the Problem. The Herald-Tribune reported that, “Individually, the spills tend to be dismissed by utilities and government officials as a temporary nuisance. While most are small and swiftly contained, cumulatively they amount to a nasty mess that threatens public health and the environment. Despite the damage, government regulators seldom crack down on offenders. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection imposed no fines for the worst effluent spill in six years — a 30-million-gallon release of reclaimed water that flooded a Pasco County community in 2010. The recent Tampa spill, the worst sewage release in six years, drew a state fine of just $30,500.”

The California Coastkeeper Alliance avers that, “Raw sewage spills pose serious threats to public and waterway health. These spills are frequent, are occasionally quite large and add up; nearly 28 million gallons of sewage spilled into California's waterways in just over the first two years of collecting data on leaking sewage collection and transport systems alone. Over 300 water bodies in California are impaired by nutrients or bacteria; it is not a coincidence that over 14,000 known septic systems are located within 600 feet of these impaired waterways.” http://www.cacoastkeeper.org/programs/clean-abundant/sewage-spills

Worldwatch Institute reports that, “297 cities in China have not yet built adequate sewage treatment plants, an official with the Ministry of Construction reported. Of these nearly 300 cities, 63 are larger urban areas, including 8 with populations of more than 500,000.” Without adequate facilities to treat their sewage, cities either release this waste untreated into nearby rivers or dump it onto surrounding farmlands. The shortage of high-quality water has become a serious issue in many localities, and water pollution continues to threaten both public health and living standards.” Of course, many of those  rivers and the runoff from farms eventually makes its way to the coast, the beaches, wetlands, and the sea. Moreover, as is tradition, coastal villages and cities directly use the ocean to dump their sewage. http://www.worldwatch.org/nearly-300-chinese-cities-lack-sewage-treatment

The World Bank reports that Globally, an estimated 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation including clean water and sewage treatment and disposal. They also report that every day, 6,000 children die from diseases associated with inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene, and unsafe water. Diarrhea alone kills one child every 20 seconds. http://water.worldbank.org/topics/sanitation-and-hygiene

The reality is that sewage is a tricky problem. It caught our attention that, “Dubai's Burj Khalifa is the tallest free-standing structure in the world. It also has a serious sewage problem.” It is also the tallest freestanding structure in the world, and it features an elevator that travels the longest distance in the world. So it is a marvel of superlatives except for raw sewage. Salon continues by reporting that the building produces roughly 15 tons of total sewage every day. And most interesting is the fact that the sewage is loaded into trucks which then line up to dispose of the sewage at a treatment facility. Often they sit for as much as a full day in line before being able to unload the huge amount of waste. This practice is not limited to Dubai. In many countries including India waste disposal is not a pubic utility or public good. Buildings are expected to collect and dispose of sewage at their expense. It is not too hard to imagine that the companies involved in such disposal may not want to incur great expense and so will find the most convenient way to get rid of the sewage. We know from many, many case studies that this usually is rivers, marshes, and the ocean.
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/29/worlds_tallest_and_smelliest_building/


 So as we said, sewage, poop, is an extremely complex challenge and worse of all because of gravity most of it ends up in our rivers, wetlands, marshes, deltas, bays, tributaries, and ultimately beaches and the ocean. Then it becomes OUR real, urgent problem as coastal scientists and managers.

Superstorm Sandy Contd.

Coastal Disaster: Superstorm Sandy

Steffen Schmidt

One of the topics we revisit constantly in the online Coastal Policy and Politics class I teach every summer are marine and coastal debris. It is one of the consistent issues that interest us from a scientific point of view. It’s also a major concern for ocean and coastal managers. See my blog http://coastalzonemanagement.blogspot.com/

For example, USA Today reported, “Officials estimate that [Superstorm] Sandy created more than 10 million cubic yards of debris in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut — enough to fill the old Giants Stadium more than four times.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/13/sandy-debris-cleanup-trash/1761375/ WLTX.com reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pulled 90,000 potentially hazardous items from the New York City rubble alone.

Day to day human activity produces lots of trash and debris on the best of days. We know about all the plastic bottles, straws, cans and a host of other “stuff” that human beings discard and that washes out to sea and unto beaches all over the US and the world. That’s at the level of concern about “litter” along roads and highways, a problem we have been attacking for decades now with education campaigns, fines for littering, and very organized cleanup efforts.

But then we have the massive and truly challenging debris volume that’s created by storms, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Here the scale is massive and the cleanup and disposal a true challenge.

Hurricane Katrina created roughly 100 million cubic yards of debris spread out specifically over the city of New Orleans and surrounding towns, the state of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and a number of other states. It’s not just this massive volume of trash and damage that’s daunting. It’s the content of the debris that poses such an enormous challenge.

Human beings produce all kinds of stuff that, when used appropriately and according to label instructions, can be at least tolerably safe. When these things suddenly “go wild” as I call it, there will be deep, deep trouble.

One example is energy. In the past we used wood to heat, cook, and light. That was biodegradable. Now we use all kinds of oils and fuels. And, just think of those new and energy efficient CFL light bulbs that we have all been using more and more and that will soon be the only bulb produced and sold. What if you break one of these?

The Environmental Protection Agency instructions: "Fluorescent light bulbs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing. 1. Open a window and leave the room (restrict access) for at least 15 minutes. 2. Remove all materials you can without using a vacuum cleaner. Wear disposable rubber gloves, if available (do not use your bare hands). 3. Place all cleanup materials in a plastic bag and seal it..

WOW! Now think of hundreds of thousands of these bulbs broken by Superstorm Sandy!

US News.NBCNews.com reported that at a Queens, New York park the EPA workers “don full-body suits and gas masks and then attack the toxic soup of debris." Imagine that. A city park so contaminated that it becomes a HAZMAT zone!  The report said that these workers then, “… scramble through the piles of debris to pick out hazardous materials like aerosol cans and electrical appliances. Other EPA workers test the air for a range of hazards including bacteria, viruses and fungal agents, hazardous fumes, and lead paint." http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/17/15240017-sandy-debris-piles-up-at-queens-park-4500-tons-and-counting?lite

To conclude, the crisis of coastal and beach debris, waste, and garbage is big enough under normal circumstances. Under a sudden crisis scenario such as Superstorm Sandy it becomes an unimaginable task. And Sandy was only one storm in a string of very bad coastal storms and we expect that it was not the last.

Sandy's kinetic energy for storm surge and wave "destruction potential" reached 5.8 on the NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's scale (0-6), the highest ever measured. Sandy caused at least $315 million in damage in the Caribbean and as much as $100 billion in the US.

For more information please contact me at coastal@iastate.edu

Suggested graphic: The "before" and after at Mantoloking, New Jersey or Staten Island New York -  http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/weeklynews/nov12/ngs-sandy-imagery.html

  Run your curser over the picture to see before and after. (see below courtesy NOAA)

The Crisis of Ocean and Coastal Debris

If you are interested in taking my Coastal Politics and Policy FOR FREE please e mail me at coastal@iastate.edu BUT, You will NOT get academic credit from Iowa State University unless you register for credit. The class is 100% on line and runs for six weeks in May/June 2013.

Image courtesy of EPA

(c) Steffen and Paul Schmidt, 2013. This blog post is the draft chapter from our forthcoming book Coatsal Issues, Coastal Solutions.

One of the topics we revisit constantly in or classes on coastal policy is marine and coastal debris.

It is one of the consistent issues that interest us from a scientific point of view. It’s also a major concern for ocean and coastal managers.

USA Today reported, “Officials estimate that Sandy created more than 10 million cubic yards of debris in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut — enough to fill the old Giants Stadium more than four times.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/13/sandy-debris-cleanup-trash/1761375/

Day to day human activity produces lots of trash and debris on the best of days. We know about all the plastic bottles, straws, cans and a host of other “stuff” that human beings discard and that washes out to sea and unto beaches all over the US and the world. That’s at the level of concern about “litter” along roads and highways, a problem we have been attacking for decades now with education campaigns, fines for littering, and very organized cleanup efforts. We even have “adopt a highway” programs where clubs and organizations can adopt a stretch of read and periodically go out and collect and properly dispose of trash. And of course there are beach cleanup programs too numerous to itemize here.

But then we have the massive and truly challenging debris volume that’s created by storms, tornado's, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes. Here the scale is massive and the cleanup and disposal a true challenge. Only professionals and hundreds of millions of dollars can attack this scale.

Hurricane Katrina created roughly 100 million cubic yards of debris spread out specifically over the city of New Orleans and surrounding towns, the state of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and a number of other states.

It’s not just this massive volume of trash and damage that’s daunting. It’s the content of the debris that poses such an enormous challenge.

Human beings produce all kinds of stuff that, when used appropriately and according to label instructions, can be at least tolerably safe. When this all suddenly “goes wild” as I call it, there is deep, deep trouble.

In the past we used wood to heat, cook, and light. That was biodegradable to the nth degree. Now, just think of those new and energy efficient CFL light bulbs that we have all been using more and more and that, if the federal government has its way, will be the only bulbs produced and sold. What if you break one of these?

Here are the full EPA instructions:

What to Do if a Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Breaks

Fluorescent light bulbs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing. EPA recommends the following clean up and disposal guidelines:

1. Open a window and leave the room (restrict access) for at least 15 minutes.
2. Remove all materials you can without using a vacuum cleaner.
• Wear disposable rubber gloves, if available (do not use your bare hands).
• Carefully scoop up the fragments and powder with stiff paper or cardboard.
• Wipe the area clean with a damp paper towel or disposable wet wipe.
• Sticky tape (such as duct tape) can be used to pick up small pieces and powder.
3. Place all cleanup materials in a plastic bag and seal it.
• If your state permits you to put used or broken fluorescent light bulbs in the garbage, seal the bulb in two plastic bags and put into the outside trash (if no other disposal or recycling options are available).
• Wash your hands after disposing of the bag.
4. The first time you vacuum the area where the bulb was broken, remove the vacuum bag once done cleaning the area (or empty and wipe the canister) and put the bag and/or vacuum debris, as well as the cleaning materials, in two sealed plastic bags in the outdoor trash or protected outdoor location for normal disposal.

Now imagine hundreds of thousands of these bulbs broken by Superstorm Sandy!

WLTX.com reports that the Environmental Protection Agency has pulled 90,000 potentially hazardous items from the New York City rubble alone. Go through your house and look at all the stuff there is. Household cleaners with warnings, propane tanks, oil and gas containers in the garage, electronics full of exotic and highly dangerous metals, and those mercury infused light bulbs CFL’s mentioned above that are intended to save the environment.

US News.NBCNews.com reported that at a Queens New York park the EPA workers “don full-body suits and gas masks” and then attack the toxic soup of debris. Imagine that. A city park so contaminated that it becomes a HAZMAT zone after a storm!  The report said that these workers then, “… scramble through the piles of debris to pick out hazardous materials like aerosol cans and electrical appliances. Other EPA workers test the air for a range of hazards including bacteria, viruses and fungal agents, hazardous fumes, and lead paint. Workers on the site are drawing on experiences from Hurricane Katrina and the devastating tornado that hit Joplin, Mo.“ http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/17/15240017-sandy-debris-piles-up-at-queens-park-4500-tons-and-counting?lite

Now also consider the structures of homes and businesses, many of which are old and probably contain lead paint and asbestos which has now all been broken out of its confinement and is out there posing an unspeakable threat to coastal communities, beaches, marshes and the ocean. Add to that common coastal hazard sites especially boat yards and marinas which have a dense population of vessels all with fuels and chemicals, and the painting and repair facilities common to boatyards which are also filled with specific and highly flammable or poisonous products. There are electric transformers, generators and other equipment that may be high risk.

Add to that MASSIVE numbers of trees down which may be sitting and soaking in the toxic soup discussed here. Those and wood debris from homes 92x4’s, plywood, etc. are run through gigantic chippers and turned into a product – wood chips. – These chips are then given away to towns and countries to use in landscaping or sometimes to individuals for the same use.

The obvious debris fields, and that’s what these are just like when a pane crashes, are on thing. Actual communities and neighborhoods are relatively dense debris locations and you can concentrate a retrieval and disposal force on those locations. Another problem are remote and unconcentrated areas such as fields, woods, marshes, estuaries, wetlands, and other locations where huge amounts of debris has been scattered. Just picture what job retrieval looks like in those places.

Now comes part two of this nightmare.

Assuming that you get all this mass of material collected and sorted where do you put it?

On the best of days we have a real landfill and waste disposal crisis in the United States. There are books written on this! For example Earth's Garbage Crisis (What If We Do Nothing?) by Christiane Dorion; Rush to Burn: Solving America's Garbage Crisis? By

Newsday Inc.; The Waste Crisis: Landfills, Incinerators, and the Search for a Sustainable Future, Hans Y. Tammemagi. “Chapters discuss garbage through the ages, the age of consumerism and the waste explosion, integrated waste management, recycling and composting, waste characteristics, alternative disposal methods (existing and abandoned mines, landfill reclamation to extend the lifespan of old dumps, ocean dumping, deep-well injection, deep injection of liquid waste in cement slurry form, sub-seabed disposal), incineration issues, containment and encapsulation …”

The book, Rubbish! Dirt On Our Hands and Crisis Ahead, by Richard Girling which is described as, “This is the story of our rubbish [garbage to Americans] — from the first human bowel movement to the littering of outer space. It is an investigation of the looming problem of waste in the 21st century — our fridge mountain; our crumbling sewers; trading waste; packaging waste; the enormity of our industrial waste; spam emails and new forms of waste; horrors of incineration . . . And it is an attempt to find a blueprint for our survival: the way our lives may have to change.”

Yeah it’s that bad!  And it’s that complicated.

This is a growing problem around the world. If you’ve ever been to islands, say in the Caribbean or South Pacific, you realize what a daunting challenge waste disposal has become. When we’ve sailed in these remote places one of the biggest problems is where to dispose of the boat garbage. In most venues “boat boys” come by and for a fee will take it away. We all know that they go just around the bend and dump it on the beach or in the ocean. When we cruisers and sailors try to dispose of it ourselves the monumental challenge becomes even more clear.

On the small Bahamian island of Normans key there is an abandoned resort that once belonged to legendary Colombian drug cartel leader Carlos Lehder. The property is in legal dispute. On shore next to the anchorage where the fuselages of crashed planes that tried to make drug run landings at night still stick out of the bay, there is a concrete structure. No doubt it was once a waterfront bar and restaurant from the resort. Inside the sailors have dumped their black plastic garbage bags because all said it is the least bad place to dispose. 

Dumping or burning used to be the only way anyone disposed of trash.

In Iowa for example, farmers had a ravine or area by a creek or river that was the junk and garbage pile. My son used to spend many hours on a nice day at the site near or farm and dig through, finding and bringing home all kinds of treasure – old toys, discarded tools, and fancy glass bottles some still with liquid in them. Who knows what all these sites contained. This was before the words “ecosystems” and “environmentalism” were invented. It was a time when in the transition from a world of natural garbage – wood, food scraps, cloth and paper – we slid almost imperceptibly into a world of chemicals. Only recently did we discover the disastrous effects those will have on the environment, the health of animals and plants, and our own well being.

Those who want to abolish the EPA seem to ignore the fact that their lives and the lives of future generations would be at terrible risk if someone didn’t look after the proper management, disposal, or prohibition of these many deadly products. The EPA may have been overzealous here and there in their enforcement regulations but overall without a monitor we wouldn’t even have a canary in the mine to warn us of coming disaster.

To conclude, the crisis of debris, waste, and garbage is big enough under normal circumstances. Under a sudden crisis scenario such as Superstorm Sandy it becomes an unimaginable task. And Sandy was only one storm in a string of very bad coastal storms and we expect that it was not the last.