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Stop ignoring rising sea levels

Richmond - The Editor, We all agree the climate is changing - sea levels are rising (1.6 mm per year and land movement) and global temperature is increasing (0.7 degrees Celsius per century).
Richmond - The Editor, We all agree the climate is changing - sea levels are rising (1.6 mm per year and land movement) and global temperature is increasing (0.7 degrees Celsius per century).You don't need to predict two metres of sea level rise (SLR) by the end of the century to be "alarmed." Even the current rate extended over the next 100 years will cause significant infrastructure problems and cost trillions of dollars to fight.Our current strategy is to pretend that we can hold the shoreline in place forever. The message that we should be spreading is this: whether SLR accelerates dramatically or not, every single coastal hazard, coastal vulnerability, erosion rate and problem area will be worse in the future, and more costly to deal with.And, in British Columbia, especially in our Lower Mainland/Delta region comprising Tsawwassen, Ladner, Richmond, etc., we have not come to grips with this fact, nor do we have any provincial plan or vision for coping with it.Any amount of SLR represents an "increased threat." The suggestion that it may not accelerate rapidly in the near future is no cause for celebration.It is not a victory. It is still a clear indication that every coastal hazard will only get worse and that holding the shoreline in place will continue to be more costly. This is the reality of coastal policy and management that so many choose to ignore.If there is another financial crash (and from all accounts the reform of the banking sector was weak), continuing to subsidise the value of investment properties in high risk areas is not likely to be a big priority for the wider community."Wait-and-see" seems like a pretty high risk strategy given existing prognoses, vis-a-vis sea level rise and the economy.Suppose climate change deniers were correct and sea level rise is no more than historic rates. The people and investment already at risk from coastal storms would still be phenomenal.All the costs of storm recovery are resources that could have been used to increase national wealth, improve health and human services, clean up the environment, safeguard natural resources and build social equity.Instead, we increasingly direct scarce resources to rebuild assets that were demolished because we ignored "natural processes."Any sea level rise only makes this worse.Richmond, Tsawwassen, Ladner - it's time to act - instead of waiting for the next "storm," let's do some brain-storming ourselves to minimize the effects of any catastrophe, which may come our way (and it will).Rommel R. CoelhoRichmond