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Press Release: Visualizing sea-level rise
Join Citizens for East Shore Parks to demonstrate where the “new” shoreline will be
Saturday, July 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Citizens for East Shore Parks (CESP), a non-profit organization, presents a sea-level rise outdoor display and speakers from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 29 at the entrance to McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, University Ave. and Frontage Rd. (west of I80), Berkeley. This is across from the Seabreeze Market. Maps, showing the submerged Berkeley streets, landmarks, and regions, will be on hand. Then, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. we will hold blue banners to show where our new shoreline will be with a two-meter sea rise, projected by scientists to take place by the year 2100 or sooner. CESP invites the public to join in holding light blue fabric sea rise panels along the 2-meter mark. The panels, each 10 feet in length by 5 feet high, will form a continuous visual banner, some 300 feet long, showing how the shoreline will move inland, submerging whole neighborhoods, thousands of acres of habitat, miles of freeway, the Oakland airport, and the land around the Oakland Coliseum by the year 2100 or sooner. Volunteers will hold the two ends of each fabric panel.
Robert Cheasty, CESP Executive Director; Jeremy Lowe, Ph.D., Senior Environmental Scientist at San Francisco Estuary Institute; and others (see below) will speak beginning at 9:30 a.m. In addition, large graphic maps will be on display to show how sea-level rise will impact the entire Bay Area and, in particular, West Berkeley.
"Addressing the threat of sea-level rise is a critical task for communities around San Francisco Bay,” says Doris Sloan, retired professor, Department of Earth & Planetary Science, U.C. Berkeley and who has served on the boards of Save the Bay and CESP.
In West Berkeley, with a two-meter sea-level rise, much of the shoreline will be lost. The meadow in McLaughlin Eastshore State Park will be underwater. Aquatic Park would be flooded and parts of University Avenue west of Highway I-80 will be submerged. The DoubleTree on Marina Blvd. and the Berkeley Yacht Club will be underwater, according to scientists’ projections.
With a 2-meter sea-level rise, the water will not cross Interstate 80 where it is elevated, but it will breach the freeway north and south of Berkeley. But, with the worst case projections of 10.5 feet of sea rise (projected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to take place by 2100 or sooner, the water intrusion would be even more severe. (From Rising Seas of California – An Update on Sea-Level Rise Science, April 2017, p. 35)
According to a U.S. Geologic Service press release posted online on Jan. 24, 2017, salt marshes worldwide are being lost to sea-level rise, erosion, and land use changes. These marshes protect the coast against storms and erosion, filter pollution, and provide habitat for fish and shellfish, the researchers said. (From: https://www.usgs.gov/news/new-
“The debate about climate change has shifted to how to preserve and protect,” Cheasty says. “Now is the time to work on solutions to preserve our treasured shorelines and shoreline parks. Our view is local, but protecting coastal neighborhoods and habitat is a nationwide problem that may cost trillions unless we start acting now. There are solutions.”
CESP is working to build a coalition of community leaders, scientists, elected officials, and environmentalists to raise awareness and to obtain funding for solutions. CESP calls on friends to carry this message – VISUALIZING SEA RISE – home to their communities and stage similar events and to join the coalition to bring the problems of Climate Change to the front burner in local, state, and national government.”
Practical Solutions – Starting Now
Researchers at Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals Project, led by the State Coastal Conservancy, recommend strategies for functioning, dynamic baylands:
• Restore complete baylands systems – Factor in the interconnected habitat types and what sustains them. Provide wildlife with refuges during high-water events. Provide for a way for the baylands to move landward as sea levels rise.
• Restore tidal flows to strategic areas and manage sediment to establish tidal marsh ecosystems. Tidal marshes re-established now provide ongoing habitat benefits and buffers against sea-level rise as it accelerates.
• Plan ahead. Create regional policies for the shore that anticipate change over time, using projections of sea-level rise. Plan for shifts in habitats, and plan to help them function well.
• Regional coordination – Create a resilient shoreline and one open to the public. New buildings should be restricted from the shoreline. Ensure that the regulating agencies work with the stakeholders.
"Sea levels are projected to increase rapidly in the middle decades of this century, with the National Research Council projecting a likely regional sea-level rise for San Francisco Bay of 0.6 to 1.1 feet and a maximum of about 1.9 feet by 2050,” says Jeremy Lowe, Senior Environmental Scientist, Resilient Landscapes Program, San Francisco Estuary Institute. “If we do not significantly limit or reduce global emissions by 2100, the likely regional sea-level rise for San Francisco Bay is projected to be 1.6 to 3.4 feet with a maximum of about 6.9 feet.”
Event location:
Speakers will address the group at the main entry to McLaughlin Eastshore State Park on the northwest corner of University Ave. and Frontage Road. Look for a large wood entrance sign for the park (The sign includes a carving of a snowy egret). When the speakers conclude, event participants will carry the horizontal fabric panels and pennants to mark where the new shoreline will be with 2-meter sea rise – basically right near the entrance of the Park at the Berkeley Meadow and University Avenue.
Visit www.resilientshoreline.org for more information.
What: Visualizing Sea-level Rise
When: 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Sat. July 29
Where: University Ave. and Frontage Rd., Berkeley (across from the Seabreeze
Market)
Who: Speakers from 9:30 – 10 a.m. include Robert Cheasty, CESP Executive
Director; Shirley Dean, CESP Board President; Jeremy Lowe, Senior
Environmental Scientist, Resilient Landscapes Program, San Francisco
Estuary Institute; Jacquelyn McCormick, Senior Advisor to Berkeley Mayor
Jesse Arreguín
10 – 11:30 a.m. participants will carry the fabric panels to the 2-meter sea-
level rise mark
Cost: Free
Info: cespmanager@eastshorepark.org or 510-524-5000
For info about upcoming Visualizing Sea-level Rise events, visit https://eastshorepark.org/
About Citizens for East Shore Parks
Founded in 1985, CESP is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization created to establish east bay shoreline parks out of landfills and property previously used commercially. Environmentalists from the Citizens for the Albany Shoreline, Emeryville Shoreline Committee, Golden Gate Audubon Society, Save the Bay, and the Sierra Club banded together to form the CESP. Other like-minded environmentalists quickly joined, as did elected and appointed officials who shared the vision of a shoreline park. They fought off shoreline development proposals in Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, and Richmond. Together this dedicated group, and the large community of thousands of voters and supporters, willed the Eastshore State Park into existence (8.5 miles of shoreline park from Oakland up through Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany and into Richmond - later renamed the McLaughlin Eastshore State Park) in one of our nation's most densely populated urban regions. The mission of CESP is to create a necklace of shoreline parks from the Carquinez Strait to San Jose.
Sponsors and Endorsers of Visualizing Sea-level Rise
The Sierra Club; Golden Gate Audubon Society; Oro Loma Sanitary District; California Native Plant Society; The City of Berkeley; Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge; the Mayors of Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, El Cerrito, Hayward, Richmond, San Pablo, Hercules; GROUNDWORKS Office, Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Assemblymember Tony Thurmond, State Senator Nancy Skinner
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