In 1962, Rachel Carson changed our lives forever.
That was the year the former editor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came out with “Silent Spring,” her most influential book. She showed that agricultural scientists and government officials had wreaked environmental havoc by indiscriminately loosing chemicals.
The Montgomery County writer and naturalist connected the overuse of DDT, an insecticide used to kill mosquitoes that carried malaria, to the decline of species such as the bald eagle. The insecticide was washing into the waterways, contaminating fish. Eagles ate the fish and the chemicals weakened their eggs to the point of collapse.
Carson died two years after her book was published, and almost a decade before the brand-new Environmental Protection Agency — created by Republican President Richard Nixon — banned the use of DDT except when human health was at risk.
We mark one of Carson’s legacies today, Earth Day. It was founded by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. senator from Wisconsin who wanted to channel the activism of ’60s college campuses into something besides protests against the Vietnam War. He was inspired, in part, by “Silent Spring.”
We mark another legacy many days. We still often refuse to accept clear evidence that change is needed. Carson was attacked as a purveyor of junk science who put lives at risk to the spread of mosquito-borne disease.
Today, many dismiss climate change in the same way.
Annapolis experienced an average of 39.3 floods a year between 2007 and 2013, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This marks a 925-percent increase from the average of 3.8 floods a year between 1957 and 1963. Private and government studies predict anywhere from double to quadruple the number of flood days by 2050.
The earth, dear readers, is not sinking. The sea is rising. Here’s what NOAA says:
“In 2014, global sea level was 2.6 inches above the 1993 average — the highest annual average in the satellite record (1993-present). Sea level continues to rise at a rate of about one-eighth of an inch per year.
“Higher sea levels mean that deadly and destructive storm surges push farther inland than they once did, which also means more frequent nuisance flooding. Disruptive and expensive, nuisance flooding is estimated to be from 300 percent to 900 percent more frequent within U.S. coastal communities than it was just 50 years ago.”
The agency is also clear on the cause: A warming planet. Water expands when it warms, and rising average temperatures are melting glaciers and ice sheets.
“The oceans are absorbing more than 90 percent of the increased atmospheric heat associated with emissions from human activity.”
Even with climate change denier Scott Pruitt in charge at the EPA, even with government-funded climate research on the chopping block, the truth is right in front of us. Some people just refuse to accept it, and the consequences leaders must address.
It was just two years ago that a candidate for Congress argued that increased flooding in Annapolis might not be a function of a changing climate but of a slower exit of water from the Chesapeake Bay caused by the bay bridge-tunnel at Cape Charles.
Neither Annapolis nor all of water-crossed Anne Arundel County can stop the rising tide. But both can take action.
The city must stop bickering about the location of pumps and move quickly to complete planning for its $6.5 million flood mitigation system, intended to prevent backflow out of storm drains and high tides spilling over seawalls. An engineering plan is set to be finished by September, construction started in March and work perhaps finished by June 2020.
The county isn’t visibly doing anything to prepare. Low-lying roads are at risk and whole neighborhoods prone to increased flooding as the coastline changes.
Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley made an interesting choice last week for his director of environmental policy, former Chesapeake Legal Alliance Executive Director Jacqueline Sincore Guild. So far, though, he has not named an official to oversee preparation for sea-level rise, a key recommendation of the long-term study of the threat submitted last year.
The county still has no one person or office overseeing preparation for sea-level rise, or for that matter protection of the environment. The agency charged with shoreline protection doesn’t even have a boat.
Head out to an Earth Day celebration this morning. Plant a tree, run in a 5K.
Then, on Monday, demand that public officials get to work dealing with inconvenient truths, just as Rachel Carson did.
Rick Hutzell is the editor of Capital Gazette Communications. Contact him at rhutzell@capgaznews.com and follow him on Twitter @HutzellRick.
