“A continuous sandbag wall on North Topsail Beach, N.C. shows the shore-hardening effect of such structures on beach loss, either by initial placement or by causing beach narrowing and loss.”—© William Neal, Orrin Pilkey & Norma Longo.
Photo courtesy of: Ken Blevins/Wilmington StarNews.
Excerpts;
Marine scientist Orrin Pilkey has long been cautioning about sea level rise and the folly of building and rebuilding along coastlines. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he talks about why an eventual retreat from oceanfront property on the U.S. coast is inevitable…
Read Full Article; Yale E360 (12-06-2018)
The global climate refugee crisis has already begun; By Orrin H. Pilkey & Keith C. Pilkey; The Hill (09-29-2018)
There are a couple of reasons why climate change is creating a new category of refugee…
Coastal policy needs dose of reality; Op Ed by Orrin Pilkey; Star News Online (02-02-2017)
The only answer to rising seas is to retreat; By Orrin H. Pilkey & Keith C. Pilkey; The News & Observer (10-18-2017)
Except for the timing, there is no controversy among scientists regarding sea level rise. Defending the coast and holding the shoreline in place ultimately will be futile. With a three-foot or a six-foot sea level rise, we will retreat, probably beginning within the next 50 years…
Let’s end war with ocean, Op-Ed by Orrin H. Pilkey (04-2017)
The immediate future most certainly holds more miles of sandbags, resulting in more narrowed and ugly beaches.But this trend can be halted and reversed. Now is the time to make peace with the ocean.The time is now to stop sandbagging, both physically with no more shore-hardening structures, and politically with no more exceptions to the intent of the rules, no more undermining existing legislation, and a return to enforcement…
