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Susan Young is the Bangor Daily News opinion editor.
Climate change swirled around my feet last Wednesday. I had headed to Willard Beach in South Portland to watch the high tide, made much higher than typical by a storm and an astronomical high tide.
I was watching the rising water from the deck of the public beach house, which is normally far back from the sandy beach and even farther from the ocean.
Yet, I had to jump onto the bench of a picnic table as the surging ocean water kept rising.
Then, on Saturday, climate change took three iconic and beloved fish shacks as I watched a few dozen feet away. The shacks, versions of which had stood on Fisherman’s Point for 200 years, were swept away by rising sea water and crashing waves.
Yes, I understand that climate change and weather are not the same thing and that a combination of factors, including a cyclical El Nino air flow over the Pacific Ocean, contributed to the record-setting storms that hit Maine last week.
But there should be no arguing with scientists — and their data — that warn that climate change is here, getting worse and threatens to make much of our planet uninhabitable. New data released earlier this month confirm that last year was the hottest ever recorded — and that the jump in global temperatures was higher than expected.
Hotter temperatures contribute to more frequent and more intense storms, along with melting sea ice in Arctic regions, which means rising sea levels. Those rising sea levels swamped Maine’s coastline from Washington to York counties last week. Portland recorded its highest tide ever, a half inch higher than that recorded during a historic storm in February 1978.
The city of South Portland has installed signs near the ocean to alert people to what might happen as temperatures and sea levels rise. One sign is at Willard Beach. The 1978 high tide level, marked in blue, was buried in sand pushed in by big waves last Wednesday. The water levels on Saturday were in the red zone, which was meant to warn people of where sea levels could be in 2050 if climate change continues unabated.
In other words, the worst predictions aren’t really predictions any more. They are reality, if only for a day or two so far.
I will willingly accept criticism that until something happens to you, you don’t take it seriously. I have written dozens of editorials and columns about climate change and the dangers it poses to Mainers and the world. I thought I understood the dangers of climate change, and the urgency of doing something about it.
But seeing the power of the waves, already filled with debris from trees, docks and other structures they’d already washed away, as they crashed into Fisherman’s Point, took my understanding to a new level. So did talking to people who have lived on the Maine coast for decades. They helped me understand how unusual the two back-to-back wind and rain storms were in January in Maine.
Rising sea levels aren’t something we can tinker our way past. They demand our attention and concern. Now. And that attention and concern must be turned into action.
Already, Maine has what looked like an aggressive climate action plan. Its central goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions are a major driver of climate change. The plan, released in December 2020, calls for a 45 percent reduction by 2045 and 80 percent by 2050. Last year, the governor announced a new goal of getting 100 percent of the state’s electricity from clean energy by 2040.
A record high tide in Maine washed away three historic fishing shacks that had stood since the 1800s and formed the backdrop of countless photographs and overran Willard Beach in South Portland on Jan. 13, 2024. Credit: Susan Young / BDN
These are the right goals, and Maine is making progress, especially in the installation of heat pumps, which reduce the burning of heating oil. However, efforts to install and transmit more wind and solar power, to harness offshore wind for electricity generation and to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels in the transportation sector have faced significant opposition.
I understand concerns about the impacts of new powerlines, wind turbines in the ocean and mandates for electric vehicles. But I also understand that the waves that damaged homes, commercial fishing piers and historic buildings will be back, likely sooner than any of us would like.
We have got to figure out how to balance concerns about new energy sources and energy infrastructure with the reality that if we don’t do more to reduce our impact on the planet, we may have little recourse against the damage that will continue to spread across our state.
