Climate Change, the Environment + Resiliency

Every single day we’re collectively experiencing problems due to sea level rise, storm water runoff, and air quality… to name just a few.

With each storm, we watch as parts of our city (from Washington Street to Wellington Avenue) flood.

The impacts happen in a flash: basements flood and roads become impassable. We quickly realize this isn’t merely an inconvenience, it’s a hazard we must learn to live alongside.

When we think about the environment, climate change, and resiliency we first and foremost have to come to terms with the fact that we’re facing a clear and present danger.

Weather events that used to occur once-in-a-decade are now commonplace and we’ll be forced to continuously reckon with Mother Nature and have to make some really difficult decisions along the way.

We’ve seen this most recently at Easton’s Beach – where decades of poor-planning and turning a blind eye to a burgeoning problem ultimately resulted in the loss of the building and our beloved carousel.

And it didn’t have to be this way.

For years, we’ve known the threat and impact of climate change was real and headed toward our shores. Unfortunately, Newport lacked leadership with the foresight and long-term strategic planning to mitigate these problems before they became untenable.

Easton’s Beach, The Cliff Walk, Elm Street Pier, and undoubtedly more landmarks to come have been left vulnerable for years with no clear continuity plans in place.

As a community, we also need to look not just at the losses that are visible, but also dive deeper into how each loss may translate into cascading negative effects.

For example, the demolition of Easton’s Beach was necessary due to the deteriorating condition of the building… but also to protect one of our most important reservoirs that is Easton’s Pond.

Similarly, it is estimated that the Cliff Walk brings in more than $200MM of economic impact for the state of Rhode Island and that revenue for local small businesses is absolutely essential.

Our single most important strategy when tackling climate change and resiliency is switching our mindset from simply reacting to a catastrophic failure to an approach that proactively gets ahead of the next problem.

In addition, my approach to the environment and resiliency is three-pronged: Benchmark, Empower, Deploy, + Practice What We Preach.

Benchmark

Newport isn’t alone… nor should we go at this alone.

There are many other seaside cities that are dealing with similar issues: Boston, New Orleans, and San Francisco are just a few coastal cities that come to mind and are also working to develop and implement flood control solutions.

We need to build a coalition of coastal communities facing resiliency issues and share information and ideas.

We also need to take stock of our existing vulnerable areas and attractions and make sure we have a plan in place to move quickly.

Empower

The City Council and the City Administration cannot achieve this alone. Not only do we need to build a coalition of coastal communities, we also need to tap our own community and existing commissions (such as Waterfront, Beach, etc) to help lay the groundwork.

Too often our very talented citizenry has been sidelined by a Council that hasn’t tasked, empowered, or heeded the advice of these commissions. It’s a waste of time and energy and it desperately needs to change.

Finally, we need to empower academia, the private sector, and nonprofits alike to get in the same room to talk about problems and innovate solutions.

Deploy

Once we find something we think will work we’ve got to get in the field.

As a City, we have to have the finances as well as the grit and determination to try new solutions.

Sometimes, when you’re facing a relentless problem, good and deployed is better than perfect but only on paper.

Practice What We Preach

Newporters are on the cutting-edge of the climate problem and we need to walk the walk and talk the talk in how we show up in our community.

Climate change is a direct result of poor human behavior over an extended period of time. While keeping an ever-watchful eye on the problem ahead we also need to exhibit leadership as a community when it comes to best environmental practices: tackling the problem that is plastics, over-reliance on fossil fuels, energy efficiency, and so much more.

Finally, it’s important to note that Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth recently hosted a community workshop to develop our first-ever multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan for Aquidneck Island.

This is a step in the right direction and underscores how imperative it is for communities to be on the same page… but it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the level of coordination and collaboration needed for this threat.

NOTE: All of our position papers are also available as PDFs by clicking here.