We Must Prepare for Rising Sea Levels

Benjamin Franklin coined the expression 200 years ago, “You should buy land because they are not making it anymore.”  Well, that may not be exactly true for the last 100 years,  as all the communities on the water have been reclaiming low-lying marsh land.  One just has to look at the the Back Bay, the flat of Beacon Hill  and the waterfront in Boston.

What brings this to mind is the recent discussion that took place in Boston about rising sea levels.  There seems little doubt that the “if” of disastrous flooding and the loss of billions of dollars in property damage and above all, the loss of human life, from Superstorm Sandy that occurred last year has become a matter of “when” for our neighborhoods.

In Boston, the Boston Redevelopment Authority seems poised to approve billions of dollars in new construction for housing and office spaces in these very areas of Boston that would be devastated by rising sea levels coupled with a hurricane like Sandy.

After viewing the damage in New York and New Jersey on the Weather Channel special recently, we urge our city officials to make sure that these new buildingsthat are still in the planning stages are using the most up-to-date technology and water safety measures to prevent the sort of disaster that happened last fall along the coastline just a short distance to our south.

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