Climate Change Impacts Bay’s Salt Marshes

By WENLEY FERGUSON, MARCI COLE EKBERG and MEG KERR/special to ecoRI News

Water impounded on the surface of the high marsh along the Narrow River. (Save The Bay)Salt marshes are tidal areas that contain plants tolerant of salt water. Rhode Island salt marshes are found along the shores of salt ponds, Narragansett Bay, estuarine rivers — such as the Narrow River estuary — and small embayments, such as Allin’s Cove in Barrington. Salt marshes provide nursery grounds and foraging habitat for hundreds of species of fish, shellfish, birds and mammals.

In addition to their habitat value, salt marshes filter out pollutants before they reach coastal waters, and provide a buffer to adjacent developed coastal communities during storms and flooding.

In the past 300 years, more than 50 percent of Narragansett Bay’s salt marshes have been destroyed, and most of the remaining salt marshes are damaged by development throughout the watershed.

Downtown Providence was once a large tidal estuary known as the Great Salt Cove. This marsh was completely filled to form the uplands and the urban landscape we see today. In fact, throughout the Narragansett Bay estuary many marshes have been partially filled. Partial filling impacts the marsh by altering the tidal exchange of water and impacting the vegetation communities that rely on twice-daily flooding. Often the result of such changes in elevation and flooding is the invasion by non-native species such as phragmites australis (common reed). Phragmites are tolerant of these conditions of limited tidal flushing and lower salinity, and can rapidly overtake partially filled marshes.

Development that favors phragmites growth includes the construction of dikes, roads and rail crossings across salt marshes. This limits the natural flow of salt water and reduces salinity. Once tidal flooding is reduced, phragmites, which are tolerant of reduced salinity, invade rapidly. Phragmites out-compete native salt-marsh vegetation, and reduce local biodiversity.

Mosquito ditching also has impacted many marshes in the Narragansett Bay watershed. Mosquito ditches are straight, narrow channels that were dug to drain the upper reaches of salt marshes. Historically, it was believed that ditching marshes would control populations of mosquitoes that breed there. But it is now known that ditching drains salt-marsh pools, which support populations of mosquito-eating fish, such as mummichogs, leading to increases in mosquitoes.

These fish are an important prey item for wading birds such as herons and egrets, as well as larger, predatory fish species. Mosquito ditching alters natural patterns of groundwater drainage, which alters plant community composition and nutrient cycling.

Polluted runoff from adjacent uplands can degrade salt marshes. Runoff from roads and other paved surfaces, and nutrient-rich runoff from fertilized lawns, agricultural areas and septic systems can degrade marshes by encouraging growth of phragmites and other invasive species. Forested areas that buffer salt marshes have diminished as population growth in coastal areas increases.

Monitoring and restoration
For more than a decade, Save The Bay and local, state and federal partners have coordinated salt-marsh restoration projects throughout the Narragansett Bay watershed. Projects have improved water flow through tidal restrictions, removed historic fill, treated stormwater flow to limit sediment deposition and pollution into the marsh, and planted buffers to protect marshes from upland runoff.

In some cases, salt-marsh plants are planted after the marsh elevation has been restored. Once high and low marsh plants are able to flourish, both plant and animal diversity in the marsh increases.

The natural assemblage of plants in a salt marsh is adapted to the wetness of the area and the salinity of the surrounding water.

Climate change with its associated sea-level rise will negatively affect salt marshes. When sea-level rise occurs gradually, plant communities have sufficient time to adapt to shifting conditions by increasing their elevation through the accretion of sediment and organic material and retreating landward. In this scenario, low marsh gradually replaces high marsh, and the entire marsh migrates inland. If sea-level rise occurs too quickly, salt marshes can’t build up elevation fast enough, and can drown in place. In addition, salt-marsh retreat is often blocked by human-built structures such as seawalls or houses or by natural terrain like bluffs or bedrock outcroppings.

Rhode Island has seen an increased rate of sea-level rise from 2.6 millimeters per year between 1931 to 2009, to 3.6 millimeters per year between 1990 and 2009. The Narragansett Bay Research Reserve calculated (pdf) a marsh accretion rate for Nag marsh of 2.9 millimeters a year. If this accretion rate is representative of other Rhode Island marshes, then marsh accretion rates aren’t keeping up with sea-level rise.

Additionally, between 2010 and 2012, observed tidal heights during the growing season exceeded predicted heights — both high and low tides — by about 9 centimeters on average during the growing season, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tide data. This phenomenon is attributed to El Nino–related changes to atmospheric pressure over the Gulf of Mexico and eastern Canada as well as to winds over the Northeast Atlantic.

Rapid sea-level rise and increased tidal heights may lead to erosion of the low-marsh margin, as well as increased inundation and possible loss of the high marsh. In many local marshes, it appears that instead of a slow shift in the vegetation community from high marsh to low marsh, higher water levels are flooding the high marsh. The water remains trapped on the high marsh, which then loses vegetation and creates open water areas that subside to an elevation that doesn’t support typical salt-marsh vegetation. High temperatures and high salinities in the high marsh during droughts can also cause die-off of high-marsh vegetation. Most marshes have additional impacts including manmade ditches or tidal restrictions, barriers to inland migration, increased nutrient inputs that can degrade below-ground biomass, and increased herbivory pressure by grazers such as Canada geese and the purple marsh crab.

Bad signs
In recent years, Save The Bay ecologists and other experts have observed that the regions’ salt marshes may be showing initial signs of response to the effects of rapid sea-level rise and increased inundation. Most of these observations have been anecdotal and haven’t been supported by quantitative field data. To better understand the changes, Save The Bay has developed a three-tiered rapid assessment to collect data to quantify the extent of the shift from vegetated salt marsh to ponded water on the marsh surface. Tier 1 of the approach is a landscape scale, GIS analysis. Tier 2 is a field-based rapid assessment. Tier 3 is a set of detailed, less rapid, research-based assessments.

In 2012, Save The Bay began conducting Tier 2 of the approach by reviewing numerous salt marsh rapid assessments, and testing out different assessment techniques in the field. Protocol included a “belt” transect from upper marsh to creek or water’s edge. Along the transect the width of each dominant plant community was measured. In dominant marsh zones, the bearing capacity of the soil was measured, which indicates the extent to which the organic matter is decomposed and how susceptible the soil is to erosion.

Preliminary results show that short-form Spartina alterniflora, once thought to be a minor component of New England salt marshes, covers 50 percent to 80 percent of the marsh.

Save The Bay has identified and begun to implement adaptive management at some marshes, including Hog Island, Barrington Beach salt marsh and Rocky Hill marsh on the Potowomut River. The goal of each of these projects is to reduce the amount of water impounded on the marsh surface to allow the marsh surface to revegetate and to prevent further marsh subsidence.

Each marsh has different factors causing water to be impounded on the former high marsh, such as migrating barrier beaches. Yet a consistent factor affecting all of these marshes and others throughout the region is the increased rate of sea level-rise.

The goal this year is to implement all three assessment tiers and to continue adaptive management planning at other marshes, including the Narrow River, Hundred Acre Cove and Round Marsh in Jamestown.

Wenley Ferguson is the director of habitat restoration and Marci Cole Ekberg is a coastal ecologist at Save The Bay. Meg Kerr is the watershed program manager at the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program. This article originally was published in the Spring 2013 Narragansett Bay Journal.

Is Flood Insurance Good for Rhode Island?

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

The state is urging residents, especially those in flood zones, to buy flood insurance. But is flood insurance good for the environment? Will it be so expensive that it forces property owners to forgo coverage? 

In an era of more intense weather, heavy rains and violent storms are causing more flooding and damage to property. Hurricane Sandy, tropical storm Irene and the flood of 2010 are no longer considered anomalies.

“We expect that trend to continue,” said Annemarie Beardsworth, spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency (RIEMA), the agency that coordinates the national flood program for the state.

To help manage costs for residents and the government, RIEMA wants more owners and tenants to get protection. According to REIMA, less than 4 percent of the state’s 500,000 homes and business have flood insurance.

The average annual premium is $1,200 for a building in a flood zone and $125 for buildings in low-risk areas. Coastal homes, however, have much higher premiums. Coverage of $250,000 for a building and contents costs $7,137 a year. Flood insurance for renters also is available, for about $125 a year.

The cost, however, is expected to climb. Beginning in 2014, rates will climb 20 percent and increase annually during four subsequent years. The increase, as dictated through the federal Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, seeks to curtail mounting costs to run the federal program. Due to more intense storms in recent years, premiums have fallen well short of expenses, creating an estimated $30 billion deficit.

Since 1968, the heavily subsidized national flood insurance program only charged about 45 percent of the actual cost to policyholders. The new rates shift most of the cost onto policyholders. In high-risk areas, rates will climb for new homes, homes sold to new owners or if a mortgage is refinanced. Most property owners who receive federal disaster aid will be required to get flood insurance.

Critics say higher flood insurance rates will discourage development in flood zones, a prospect that environmentalists generally favor because it helps protect areas such as environmentally sensitive wetlands. However, higher premiums may also encourage homeowners to go without insurance, which shifts clean-up costs to taxpayers.

Beardsworth said the higher rates aren't intended to promote a retreat from flood zones; it's about cutting costs. "I think every individual situation is different," she said. "We can't tell people what to do. (Home owners) have to run the numbers and make the decision that is best for them."

Hurricane Sandy and subsequent storms have likely changed the shape and breadth of high-risk areas. Updated flood maps showing the new flood zones are expected this summer. The current and eventual new zones are online at floodsmart.gov.

Targeted zones seeking to clear development from large areas hasn’t taken hold in Rhode Island. Gov. Lincoln Chafee said it would be a legal mess for the state to buy threatened waterfront structures as New York has proposed.

Flood insurance for property owners and renters is available through local property and casualty insurance agents. Rates are the same regardless of the agent. A standard homeowners policy doesn't include flood insurance.

“The bottom line is we’d love to see everyone have flood insurance,” Beardsworth said.

R.I. Launches Climate Change Shoreline Project

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

NARRAGANSETT — The Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) is leading the charge when it comes to addressing climate change in Rhode Island.

Not only does the state agency issue building permits for docks and other structures along the coast, it also oversees research of Narragansett Bay and Block Island and Rhode Island sounds. Its most celebrated project, the Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP), is a national model for long-term fisheries management, habitat conservation and wind-energy development.

Next up is the Beach SAMP, a research and policy plan for Rhode Island's eroding shoreline and 3 to 6 feet of predicted sea-level rise.

The CMRC kicked off the four-year project April 4 with a public forum at the University of Rhode Island.

Recent storms such as Sandy and Irene and even some of this past winter's less-intense storms have caused some startling coastal erosion and created an urgency for addressing climate change locally, according to CRMC director Grover Fugate. The Beach SAMP will be conducted with the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island Sea Grant. The bulk of the at least $1.4 million cost is expected to be funded through federal grants. Although only $250,000 has been secured so far, Fugate said the state can't afford to wait for funding to begin climate change planning.

“The bottom line is this is too important for Rhode Island to walk away from," he said.

Brown University Students Reflect on Climate Rally

More than a hundred Brown University students traveled on two buses to the Feb. 17 climate change rally in Washington, D.C. Here are reactions and photographs from three undergraduate students enrolled in an environmental journalism course in Brown's Department of Environmental Studies.

Alison Kirsch
Alison KirschPerhaps the most refreshing aspect of the rally was the overall focus on the long-term future.

It frequently frustrates me that most of the arguments against addressing climate issues are so shortsighted. But it was clear that at this rally everyone was thinking ahead to how our goals ensure a sustainable future — environmentally, economically, and as measured by global human vitality.

A touching reminder of this outlook came during the march to the White House. A few brave individuals began a chant: “I want grandkids, I want grandkids!” I was surprised to see that these protesters appeared to be college students, for whom grandchildren are certainly a long way away.

After a few rounds, another chant began, alternating with the first: “I have grandkids, I have grandkids!” And, so the young and the old marched on together, demanding that others join them in thinking about the future.

Hannah Poor
Alex Durand photoAs thousands of protesters gathered near the Washington Monument, the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, called to mind another group of activists who descended on the nation’s capital half a century ago; this August marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Yearwood said that we can thank those who stood in that very spot 50 years ago for our right to gather together now — people of all races, male and female, straight and gay.  However, he said, “While they were fighting for equality, we are fighting for existence.”

Yearwood’s remark reminded me of a similar historical invocation by Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey at Boston’s Faneuil Hall in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. He noted the historic importance of the hall in which we sat, pointing to meetings held there by American revolutionaries, abolitionists and suffragists. Like Yearwood, he even had a comparative catch phrase: While Paul Revere warned the Minutemen of an invasion from the sea, he said, “Sandy warns us of an invasion from the sea itself.”

The words of both these speakers sent shivers down my back. It felt powerful to be meeting and protesting in the same place as the people who shaped the historical narratives that I have been ingesting since grade school. Both speakers posed their audiences as players in an environmental revolution that will change the course of history. However, both also emphasized that no matter how significant the struggles of the past, humankind has never faced a crisis so critical as the one that confronts us now.

Yearwood pointed out the youngest protester in the crowd, a 4-month-old baby. He said that he hopes that in 50 years, she will be able to stand in this spot and thank us for the fact that the planet still exists.

Alex Durand
Alex Durand photoTens of thousands of people marched past the White House sharing one message: That President Obama commit to action on climate change, starting by rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline permit. 

Naysayers doubted the ability of a group of protesters — albeit a very large group — to stand up to the power of Big Oil. Can 50,000 climate activists really compete with the lure of 168.7 billion barrels of oil tucked away in Alberta’s tar sands? Or, the $218 billion of capital investment in tar sands oil that Alberta’s government estimates will accumulate in the next 25 years if development of the pipeline continues? Or, the $116 billion that has already been invested in the oil sands industry between 2000 and 2010?

The numbers don't seem promising, but the activists may have the energy and the persistence to challenge the status quo. “I think that these climate activists understand the importance of addressing climate change,” said Camila Bustos, one of more than a hundred students from Brown University at the rally. “They are tired of years of inaction, skepticism and business as usual.” 

Laura Rigell, a protester from Tennessee, believes the movement will continue to pressure Obama for climate action on a national level. “(The protesters’) passion and the urgency of the issues will drive them forward,” she said.   

In a follow-up statement to protesters, organizer Bill McKibben hinted at future actions. “We are making plans to put the momentum of this historic day to use,” he said.

Although the climate activists have found formidable opponents in the entities backing the Keystone XL pipeline, the biggest climate change rally in history has certainly become a striking milestone of the climate movement. In its most basic form, the U.S. climate movement represents a study of people power against the overwhelming resources of political and corporate power. Will the American ideal of government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” hold strong against the pressures of Big Oil? I believe the protesters put it best when they chanted, “Ain’t no power like the power of the people, ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop."

Filmmaker: ‘Climate Change Movement in Trouble’

By KEVIN PROFT/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — Randy Olson, marine scientist-turned-storyteller-and-filmmaker, believes the climate movement is in serious trouble. “It’s like the Titanic,” Olson said during a recent lecture at Brown University. “It started out with so much optimism, hit an iceberg, and now it is sinking.”

According to Olson, the 25-year effort to combat climate change, beginning in 1988 when James Hansen testified to Congress about the greenhouse effect and ending in 2013 when Theda Skocpol declared the movement a failure, is almost a perfect arc. Olson said the movement was gaining momentum through 1997, when Al Gore signed the Kyoto Protocol, but was derailed by, among other things, the 2004 publication of “State of Fear,” a Michael Crichton novel that demonized environmentalists, and the “Climategate” debacle of 2009, during which scientists’ e-mails were stolen, unfairly edited and released to the public in a way that made climate science look fraudulent.

Despite a long list of setbacks experienced by environmentalists, Olson believes the main reason the climate movement is failing is a lack of visceral, emotional storytelling.

“Environmentalists don’t like me saying anything bad about Al Gore (or “An Inconvenient Truth),” Olson said during the Feb. 13 lecture, “but the film was just not that liked.” The combination of PowerPoint slides, a polarizing political figure and rushed production, with the goal of capitalizing on Hurricane Katrina, resulted in a movie with no heart, he said.

Instead of barraging the public with endless scientific studies that threaten imminent doom, the environmental community needs to tell the story of how climate change impacts individuals and communities, according to Olson.

In his 2008 movie “Sizzle: a Global Warming Comedy,” Olson juxtaposed a traditional, Gore-style environmental filmmaker against a couple of average Joes to highlight the disconnect that exists between environmentalists and the public. The environmentalist is determined to make the perfect global warming documentary, complete with boring interviews, endless PowerPoint slides and graphs of carbon-dioxide emissions. His cameraman and sound guys have little knowledge about climate change, but understand reality much better than the filmmaker.

The format of the movie is difficult to explain, falling somewhere between documentary and mockumentary. Everyone’s role is scripted, except for the scientists and climate deniers that the filmmaker interviews. During each interview, the cameraman interrupts the session to either agree with the denier or argue with the scientist. The most honest footage from each interview results from responses to the interjections from the cameraman, not the questions being asked by the filmmaker.

The film climaxes after the sound guy, who doubles as the film’s editor, notices that the only time the scientists or deniers act like “real people” is when they are talking to the cameraman. He eventually convinces the skeptical filmmaker that these more emotional exchanges are more likely to help fight climate change. The crew decides to stop interviewing “experts” and instead flies to New Orleans, where they conduct a number of moving (real) interviews with residents of the city whose lives were turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina.

People are only receptive to ideas when the message bearer is “liked and trusted,” according to Olson. If either element is missing, he said, no amount of science is going to convince people.

By replacing polarizing celebrities, technical-sounding scientists and confrontational environmentalists with real people suffering from the effects of climate change, Olson believes the public may come around and demand action.

Sunshine Menezes, executive director of the Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island and a member of the evening’s panel discussion, summarized the importance of humanizing climate change nicely. She noted that polar bears, creatures most people will never see, make climate change seem foreign, but the faces and stories of the victims of Hurricane Sandy have the power to bring the crisis home.

Whitehouse Speaks Loudly on Climate Change

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

It’s no coincidence Grover Fugate is Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s guest at Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Fugate, director of the state Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), is one of Rhode Island's most vocal climate hawks. Recently, Fugate declared that sea-level rise in Narragansett Bay could exceed 6 feet by the end of the century. A shocking proclamation given that most of the public is just learning of the 3- to 5-foot increase announced last year.

It’s not a prediction Whitehouse would challenge, however. The Democratic senator is one of the most outspoken climate champions in Congress. In recent months, he has delivered impassioned weekly speeches from the Senate floor, expounding on environmental degradation taking place across a warming planet.

Between 5 and 15 minutes in length, videos of the speeches are candy for YouTube political-policy fans and information-hungry environmentalists. Whitehouse pushes for solutions and calls out the deniers in Congress. The off-kilter global ecosystem, he says, portends unknown damage. The price of inaction far outstrips the cost of mitigation. Skeptics, Republicans and their corporate backers are regularly skewered as climate antagonists.

“There is a rear-guard action in this building led by polluters to try to prevent us from taking action on this. But we have to face the fact that the deniers are wrong; they are just plain dead wrong,” Whitehouse said during a Dec. 5 meeting of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

The speeches deliver current and dramatic research not mentioned in the mainstream discussion on climate change. In a Dec. 12, 2012 speech called “We are Sleepwalking Through History,” Whitehouse noted that the planet's carbon dioxide concentration has increased 50 parts per million since 1980, and is now well outside its range from the last 800,000 years. Oceans are absorbing a million tons of carbon an hour, resulting in a 30 percent increase in ocean acidity — an increase faster than any time in the past 50 million years.

Whitehouse also describes global and local impacts of climate change, such as during Hurricane Sand the unearthing of vehicles from the 1930s and '40s buried at Misquamicut Beach in Westerly.

His staff explained that Whitehouse gives the speeches because of frustration caused by “the barricade of special interests and climate-change deniers blocking action on this issue in Washington.” Speaking on the Senate floor, spokesman Seth Larson said, allows Whitehouse to keep the climate-change debate alive and “to force deniers to either hide or come to the floor with their extremist views.”

And if they haven’t yet elevated discussion nationally or in D.C., the speeches may have raised Whitehouse's environmental standing, landing him a co-chair position on the Senate and House Task Force on Climate Change with Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California. The committee will seek input from industry on both sides of the issue: oil, coal and gas companies, electric utilities, automakers, defense contractors, insurance companies and universities. The outcomes may result in more recommendations than laws, but Whitehouse is committed to the cause. The speeches on YouTube and C-Span will continue.

“As long as it takes to break through that barricade of special interests and get something done,” Whitehouse said.

Climate Report Highlights Impacts on Northeast

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

A recently released draft of a federal climate change assessment presents some disturbing predictions for the Northeast. Most of the expected impacts are nothing new, such as more frequent heat waves, sea-level rise, flooding and more intense storms.

But the predictions get dire, especially if carbon emissions continue to climb. Under the worst-case scenario, temperatures jump 4.5-10 degrees Fahrenheit by 2080. Even if emissions are substantially reduced, temperatures still climb between 3 and 6 degrees. Under any scenario, the heat and weather will get much more unpleasant, according to the report.

Sea level will rise between 1 and 4 feet by the end of the century, depending on the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. A 1.5-foot-rise exposes $6 trillion worth of real estate between Baltimore and Boston to flooding, according to the report. Higher sea level causes 1-in-10 year floods to occur 1 in 3 years.

This more powerful weather will damage the environment and social structures — low-income populations, in particular. The region’s aging infrastructure and the economy also gets socked, according to the report. Damage is expected to cell towers, power plants, bridges, sewage treatment plants, waste storage areas, drinking water systems and ports. Power outages will be more frequent. Highways such as I-95 and rail system like Amtrak will close more often because of flooding.

The some 180,000 farms across 12 Northeast states might enjoy a longer growing season, but adapting to intense weather will be costly due to both drought and increased precipitation. The longer growing season will increase pest populations, weed damage and the range of invasive plant habitats.

State climate change adaptation strategies, such as those in Rhode Island, are only in the beginning stages, according to the report. Massachusetts was noted for including climate change impacts into standard environmental reviews. The cap-and-trade program of the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which Rhode Island is a member, was recognized for helping cut carbon emissions.

The report was written by a 60-member federal advisory commission led by the Department of Commerce, and supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). After a review period that ends April 12, the report will become the Third National Climate Assessment Report.

The document contains research and conclusions about the existence of climate change, such as, “Emissions of CO2 from human activities in the U.S. continue to increase and exceed ecosystem CO2 uptake by more than three times. As a result, North America remains a net source of CO2 into the atmosphere by a substantial margin.”

It also contains a rich source of information and visual aids relating to climate chnage causes, adaptation, mitigation and policy strategies. Other interesting stats related to the Northeast from the report include:

64 million people live in the Northeast, a region from Washington, D.C., through New England.

Between 1895 and 2011, the average temperature increased nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit; annual precipitation increased about 5 inches; sea level climbed a foot.

Rapid sea level rise accelerated due to land subsidence and a weakening of the Gulf Stream.

Between 1958 and 2010, precipitation increased 74 percent in heavy rain and snow events.

Exploring Link Between Ticks and Climate Change

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

NARRAGANSETT — There may not yet be a direct link between warmer weather and disease-carrying insects, but both are on the rise in Rhode Island.

The state’s temperature is up an average of 2.3 degrees during the past century, the highest increase in New England. The warmer seasons offer an inviting habitat for ticks and mosquitoes and the diseases they carry such as Lyme disease and West Nile virus.

University of Rhode Island tick researcher Thomas Mather said 2012 set a record for the nymphal, or young, deer tick, which are most likely to contract and spread Lyme disease.

During a Dec. 10 seminar on climate change at URI, Mather noted that ticks thrive in humid weather and this year was especially humid in early June when ticks are most active.

The exploding tick population, he said, didn't inflate the number of recorded cases of Lyme disease. But, Mather explained, many cases go unreported to health officials.

When he started researching ticks in 1992, Mather only found ticks in 60 percent of the state. Today, he’s finding ticks in nearly every square foot of open space. “It’s not just related to the woods anymore. It’s where people are," Mather said.

South Kingstown, Middletown and the Scituate Reservoir have some of the highest tick concentrations in the Northeast, including the state where Lyme disease originated. “(Connecticut) holds nothing to what we have in Rhode Island," he said.

Mather and other experts at the seminar noted that there are no studies that link climate change to the migration of insects and the diseases they carry. But they expect to see more bugs carrying more diseases in Rhode Island and across New England.

Al Gettman, the mosquito abatement coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Management, said the spread of ticks and mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus and EEE is likely to cause greater harm to the poor and countries with inferior infrastructure. "We'll be able to adapt more easily."

Howard Ginsberg, of the U.S. Geological Survey and a URI researcher, noted that bug-carrying diseases like Lyme disease could continue migrating north. And Rhode Island is in the middle of the most dense spread of the disease. "Lyme disease is going to affect us for a long time regardless of climate change."

Mather, who runs the world’s largest deer tick database, said educating the public is the best method for preventing the spread vector-borne diseases. His website offers in-depth tips on keeping ticks at bay, including efforts to develop an anti-tick vaccine.

His TickSmart literacy campaign educates the public as well educators, health professionals and camp counselors about risks and avoidance strategies. Jamestown is the first community to adopt Mather’s Tick Prevention Community program.

A video of his tick removal strategy has been a hit on the internet.

Robert Vanderslice of the state Department of Health organized the seminar as part of series to address health issues related to climate change. The project is part of the state Climate Change Commission to foster long-term solutions to climate change.

Climate Change Planning Doesn't Meet Reality

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

NARRAGANSETT — The Metcalf Institute at the University of Rhode Island recently held the second in series of seminars on climate change. The program honors the late Peter B. Lord, longtime environmental writer for the Providence Journal. Here are a few noteworthy points that were offered Nov. 30 by 15 scientists, engineers, planners and other experts:

Snowpack in the Northern New England has decreased its annual average by 16 percent since 1926.

Sea level is projected to rise between 2.5 and 6 feet by 2100. “If you want to see what 5 feet of sea level rise will look like, you look at Hurricane Sandy,” said Bryan Oakley, a URI researcher and professor of earth sciences at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Rebuilding on the coast after storms is ultimately futile, according to Oakley, an expert on shoreline erosion. “Retreat is the only sure option. The others are just Band-Aids.”

Oakley recognized the reluctance of owners to give up their land. One possible option for keeping shorelines assessable, he said, is to build impervious road surfaces that adjust to the forces of erosion.

Coastal cities, Oakley said, face bigger challenges than beach communities, as elevating metropolises would be a massive and costly undertaking.

The National Park Service is adapting to climate change by replacing structures at its coastal parks with movable buildings. Asphalt parking lots are being replaced with permeable, clay-based materials and clamshells.

Salt marshes are considered ideal for coastline protection, especially during storms. It’s been asserted that marshes accrete, or essentially grow taller, as the sea level rises. But Wenley Ferguson, Save The Bay’s restoration coordinator, said marshes may not be to keep up with rising sea levels, especially as erosion accelerates along their edges.

Flood zones, as determined by FEMA, don't take into account expected sea level rise.

The Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) is planning for higher sea level, erosion and storm surges. Director Grover Fugate said there is no uncertainty about climate change. “I can tell you it’s real. I can’t tell you how fast it’s moving and how bad it’s going to get," he said.

Fugate advocated for planning for the worst-case scenario. “Even if we go to zero emissions today, we’ll see sea level rise for centuries, potentially," he said.

State Department of Transportation director Michael Lewis used gallows humor to describe the inevitability of the destructive force brought on by climate change. “If you lose the community, why do you need the road?” he asked.

Wastewater treatment facilities, which the DOT manages, are already retrenching for flooding, Lewis said.

State Division of Statewide Planning is asking cities and towns to include adaptation for sea level rise and climate change in their comprehensive plans.

State Climate Change Commission is likely to be more reactive than proactive about climate change adaptation, according to Rep. Art Handy, D-Cranston. "I have a sense we are fiddling as Rome is burning," he said.

McKibben: Fossil Fuels Don't Add Up

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

PROVIDENCE — The environmental movement's most recognized activist used humor and fun to deliver his message to combat climate change, but his call to action was altogether serious.

Bill McKibben, author, activist and college professor, received a standing ovation when he took the stage Monday night at a packed auditorium at Brown University. He urged the audience of college students and local environmentalists of all ages to take on the fossil-fuel industry through protests and an active campaign of divestment.

"As of tonight, we're going after the fossil-fuel industry," he said.

McKibben made a strong comparison to the anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s to promote a new campaign to curtail carbon emissions. He also drew upon the success of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline protests to suggest that civil disobedience was the method of choice for getting results.

The success of the mass protest outside the White House in 2011, he said, suggested that getting arrested for peaceful protest sends a powerful message. McKibben recruited the energized crowd to attend another mass protest in Washington, D.C., on Presidents’ Day in February.

Bill McKibben pedals a bike-powered smoothie machine before speaking at Brown University on Nov. 26. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News)The Nov. 26 Brown University event was one of more than 20 McKibben is presenting around the country to mostly college-age audiences on his “Do The Math” tour. Using a few props such as bottles of beer and video messages from environmentalists such as Van Jones, McKibben highlights the fact that coal, oil and gas reserves must stay in the ground in order to prevent the planet’s temperature from rising 2 degrees Celsius.

“It’s going to be burned unless we change the story,” he said. “Either Exxon gives in, or physics gives in.”

Hurricane Sandy, the melting of the polar ice cap, drought and flooding are signs of what’s ahead if the planet gets warmer, he said.

But McKibben said there are ways to avert global climate change. The solution: a quick leap to renewable energy coupled with ending the “outlaw” business practices of the fossil-fuel industry.

“It’s still a trickle, it’s not the flood we need,” he said of the growth of wind and solar energy in the United States.

The Brown University event was organized by the student-run Brown Divest Coal Campaign. The group has asked the university to divest its investments in coal companies with the worst environmental records. The group is holding a campus rally Nov. 29.

Senior Keally Cieslik said after McKibben’s talk that she would likely attend Thursday's rally. “It’s a moral responsibility to take action,” she said.