people of the stony shore
September 16, 2019 11:10 AM Subscribe
Long Island’s Shinnecock Fight Sea Level Rise By Using Nature Itself
When the Long Island Rail Road was first planned in 1859, it ran through the land then occupied by the Shinnecock Nation, a seafaring people who had settled along Peconic Bay and Shinnecock Bay on the south shore of what is now Suffolk County. In a deal that the Shinnecock later claimed was secured with faked signatures, Southampton businessmen bought more than 3,000 acres of Shinnecock land for a bargain price of just $2 an acre, paving the way for well-to-do Manhattanites creating summer homes in what they called The Hamptons.
When the Long Island Rail Road was first planned in 1859, it ran through the land then occupied by the Shinnecock Nation, a seafaring people who had settled along Peconic Bay and Shinnecock Bay on the south shore of what is now Suffolk County. In a deal that the Shinnecock later claimed was secured with faked signatures, Southampton businessmen bought more than 3,000 acres of Shinnecock land for a bargain price of just $2 an acre, paving the way for well-to-do Manhattanites creating summer homes in what they called The Hamptons.
The poorest and most disenfranchised among us will be the most impacted by climate change. This is example number god-knows of them seeing it staring them dead in the face and putting the only thing they have, sweat and blood, into a war that they didn't start and can't win.
The injustices of the past continue to inflict themselves manyfold upon the present. I hope their dunes hold long enough for their longer term plans to solidify. Real, healthy sand dunes are pretty amazing things when you think about it, I've become more and more impressed by them of late... but they won't be enough and everyone knows it.
posted by RolandOfEld at 1:03 PM on September 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
The injustices of the past continue to inflict themselves manyfold upon the present. I hope their dunes hold long enough for their longer term plans to solidify. Real, healthy sand dunes are pretty amazing things when you think about it, I've become more and more impressed by them of late... but they won't be enough and everyone knows it.
posted by RolandOfEld at 1:03 PM on September 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
Saw this a while back and thought of it immediately upon seeing those stones barely submerged of the shore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNoy4H2Z-o
"Wave tank demonstration showing the impact of coastal defences on flood risk"
posted by radiosilents at 2:27 PM on September 16, 2019 [4 favorites]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNoy4H2Z-o
"Wave tank demonstration showing the impact of coastal defences on flood risk"
posted by radiosilents at 2:27 PM on September 16, 2019 [4 favorites]
I would expect those rocks to sink into the beach fairly quickly as the tides and waves wash out the sand underneath.
But even if that doesn’t happen, as the article says they are at best only buying a couple of decades and likely less. Hopefully they can come to agreement with the state and/or feds to protect their treaty and sovereign rights and acquire more suitable land within their historic territory.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:56 PM on September 16, 2019
But even if that doesn’t happen, as the article says they are at best only buying a couple of decades and likely less. Hopefully they can come to agreement with the state and/or feds to protect their treaty and sovereign rights and acquire more suitable land within their historic territory.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:56 PM on September 16, 2019
The wave demo is instructive.
The degree of beach-undercutting may depend on how long-lasting the fill between the boulders is. Adding more boulders will be far cheaper that that amazing recurve.
Here's steps plus recurve at Burnham on Sea. Expensive!
posted by Twang at 12:06 AM on September 17, 2019
The degree of beach-undercutting may depend on how long-lasting the fill between the boulders is. Adding more boulders will be far cheaper that that amazing recurve.
Here's steps plus recurve at Burnham on Sea. Expensive!
posted by Twang at 12:06 AM on September 17, 2019
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posted by GenjiandProust at 12:45 PM on September 16, 2019