Tucked deep inside an April report by Boston’s Climate Action Leadership Committee is a photo of a wharf seemingly under water. There is no explanation with the photo—indeed, no mention at all in the report—but the implication is that Boston’s waterfront is already feeling the effects of climate change.
It turns out the photo was taken by Bud Ris, the president and chief executive of the New England Aquarium and a member of the committee, which recommended ways for the city to deal with climate change.
Ris took the photo at the end of Long Wharf on January 1, one of the few times a year the sun and moon are aligned in such a way to maximize tides. Ris says the tide was 12-feet high, about 2 to 4 feet higher than normal. Long Wharf is one of the city’s oldest and lowest piers, but Ris says the picture shows what may happen along Boston’s waterfront as water levels rise due to global warming.
“The key point is that—given that sea level has already risen nearly a foot in Boston over the last century, partly from subsidence of the land and partly from thermal expansion of the oceans because of climate change—we don’t have a lot of time,” Ris says.
Ris heeds his own advice. The harbor walk around the aquarium was elevated an extra two feet, partly in anticipation of sea level rising.
