Letters
Letters to the Editor A matter of inches ?
Editor: I have been inspired to respond to Bill Meagher’s article in the December issue of NorthBay biz [“A Sea Change Is Gonna Come”] about the looming catastrophe of rising water caused by climate change. He reports [based on projects from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission that Marin will see a] 12-inch to 32-inch sea level rise, $110 billion cost, 104,000 jobs lost plus another 85,000 jobs that will never happen, 13,000 housing units destroyed and another 70,000 that will not get built. Wow! This is awful and it’s all happening by 2050! We better do something fast and thankfully Bill and the BCDC are sounding the alarm. But 12 to 32 inches is a big range… Help me out here, Bill Meagher. You are a journalist so you should be able to check the data, methodology and resources, and not just quote Chairman Mao. How about a little curiosity? Are we looking at 3 inches or 8 or 12 inches or 32 inches? Will 189,000 jobs really disappear from Marin when storm tides are a few inches higher? What’s the rationale for that? How are those calculations made? What about all the new jobs building seawalls, levees and 63,000 new housing units to replace all the submerged ones? How about doing some real reporting and analysis rather than repeating dire warnings about flood-bombs? Mr. Walsh [editor], don’t you think your readers deserve better than this? Roger Hartley, Sonoma Editor’s Note: Thanks for writing Roger! We always appreciate a healthy dose of skepticism. But keep in mind that the role of journalists isn’t to assume we can quickly become experts on a subject merely by conducting some Google searches and reading some graphs (i.e. the dreaded “doing your own research” model). While we may conduct those exercises for basic background information and to develop working knowledge of context, we rightly still rely on information from authorities on complex subjects to provide accurate information and objective feedback, which we report to readers. Given that credible studies show between 98.7 and 100% of international scientists believe climate change is taking place and add to that the very real fact that sea levels have risen around 10 inches since the advent of the industrial revolution (late 19th century) with around half of that sea-level rise coming since 1980 (in other words, climate change due to humans burning fossil fuels is quickly accelerating), it’s reasonable for Meagher to report the scientific community consensus expectation that, based on the rate of acceleration and unless fossil-fuel burning is drastically curbed, sea levels will rise from around 1 to 3 feet by 2100. You’re correct that “projections aren’t data”—but they’re based on data. Rather than focusing on such questions as, “will sea levels rise 12 or 36 inches—which is it?!” (in an attempt to cast doubt on the projections and encourage inaction), Meagher, as a responsible journalist, looks at the big picture reality of climate change and asserts: “It would behoove we humans to do something about it.”—Jason Walsh, editor
Publisher
Lawrence Amaturo
Editor-in-Chief
Jason Walsh
Associate Editor
Rosie Padilla
Contributing Editor
Bill Meagher
Design Director
Anne Schenk
Administrative Assistant
Jodi Pasquini
Marketing Consultant
Lori Rooney
Writers Janet Perry Jason Walsh Jean Saylor Doppenberg Judith M. Wilson
Rosie Padilla Vicki Larson
Columnists Adam Lee Alexandra Russell Bill Meagher Christina Julian Jason Walsh John Ash Michael E. Duffy Robert Eyler
Photographers Duncan Garrett
For more recent NorthBay biz issues, check out northbaybiz.com . Email comments, complaints and witty observations to jwalsh@northbaybiz.com. Please include name, address and phone number. Letters will be edited for length and clarity.
Helping grow your business isn’t just something we do .... it’s all we do!
/northbaybiz
/northbaybiz
@northbaybiz
8 NorthBaybiz
February 2024
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease