Few businesses heeding alarm on climate change

HOLDING WATER: Bethany Mazza, co-owner of Green Ink, whose business saw no water damage from Hurricane Sandy’s surge despite water a foot higher than the street outside of the North Kingstown shop. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
HOLDING WATER: Bethany Mazza, co-owner of Green Ink, whose business saw no water damage from Hurricane Sandy’s surge despite water a foot higher than the street outside of the North Kingstown shop. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Climate change is causing rising seas and intensified storms, in the view of many scientists around the world. Rhode Island planners and environmental experts on the leading edge of climate-change issues are alerting businesses and communities to start making changes now to deal with the impacts.
The small businesses in Wickford Village in North Kingstown are at the top of the list for town Planning Director Jonathan Reiner.
“In Wickford Village, the parking lot floods. I’ve been here seven years and I don’t know if I’m just noticing it more, or it’s happening more often from sea level rise,” Reiner said at a Nov. 30 climate-change seminar at the University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting. “We do know if it keeps flooding, we’re going to lose that infrastructure and that will certainly impact the businesses in Wickford.”
North Kingstown was the subject of a recent pilot project to study climate change and sea level rise, done in collaboration with University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Center and the Sea Grant program. The findings confirm the town’s susceptibility to the impacts of sea level rise.
It’s no surprise to Reiner, who is a member of the R.I. Climate Change Commission established by the General Assembly in 2010. The commission released a report in November stating, “The impacts of climate change upon Rhode Island’s built and natural environments are wide-ranging, discernible and documented, and, in many cases, growing in severity.”
Now Reiner’s mission is to get local businesses and residents to be aware of possible impacts and start including short-, medium- and long-term adaptations in their planning.
“If the water starts rising every time we have a tide, the parking lot is going to start flooding regularly. With one foot of higher tide, the bridge may be cut off,” said Reiner, who emphasized that dealing with the rising tide will have to be done in phases.
There’s no denying that there are many climate-change doubters. But several speakers at the Metcalf workshop agreed on the prediction of a 3-to-5-foot sea level rise by the year 2100. Some believe the time frame is accelerating.
“If there’s a 3-foot sea level rise, there will be no parking lot,” Reiner said. “And imagine if there is a 5-foot sea level rise. Coastal villages like Wickford will be gone.” Like many small-business owners, Bee Givan of Green Ink woman’s-lifestyle boutique in Wickford Village isn’t overly concerned about climate change yet.
Hurricane Sandy storm surges pushed water a foot high over the front step of her shop, but she had caulked around the door in preparation and didn’t have any storm damage inside.
“I’ve never seen the water that high before,” said Givan, who’s had her business in the village for 40 years. “I’ve seen flooding, but I’ve never seen it come up a foot deep in the street.”
Her perspective is like many who want to see more proof.
“I’m not a climate-change alarmist yet. You have to convince me twice,” said Givan. “I’d have to see it flood in a less intense storm.”
FM Global Vice President and Research Manager Louis Gritzo oversees the Johnston-based commercial-insurance company’s research campus in West Glocester. He works with teams of scientists with expertise in windstorms, floods and other natural hazards.
“We don’t know exactly how climate is going to change and some businesses don’t want to invest the money if we can’t tell them how things are going to change,” Gritzo said. “We work with them to identify key exposures and protect against flood and wind damage.”
Some basics, such as fastening down roofs at the corners, can be a good start for many businesses, said Gritzo, who admitted it takes some convincing to get many firms to prepare for climate change.
“Hurricane Sandy impacted the supply chain and in the climate of globalization, that affects the entire system, including economic well-being in Rhode Island,” Gritzo said. That might convince some corporate executives to stand up and take notice of severe weather and climate-change preparations, he said.
“What we know from working with Fortune 100 companies is, when disasters are brought to life, when companies see the risk in real terms, they might look at it differently next year,” Gritzo said.
Director of the R.I. Department of Transportation Michael Lewis said sea level rise, as well as increases in water temperature and hurricane intensity anticipated as a result of climate change, will be major challenges for drainage systems.
Severe weather events will also impact the roads that keep the economy humming, Lewis said.
“When the interstate shuts down,” said Lewis, “all commerce shuts down.” •

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