A province under the sea

CANADA

Moira Welsh

Toronto Star

Canada’s smallest province is getting smaller by the day because of climate change, said Moira Welsh. Most of the country’s islands have a base of granite or another hard rock underneath the surface. But Prince Edward Island—which sits north of Nova Scotia and east of New Brunswick—is underpinned by sandstone and sand. Rising sea levels and increasingly powerful winds and storm surges are rapidly eroding that foundation. As ocean temperatures rise, storms become stronger, “creating powerful, surging waves that smash against the coast and rip it away.” Warmer weather also means that there’s much less of the ice that once protected the coastline during the winter, so the beaches are exposed to harsh winter winds. The losses are significant. In the town of Alberton, one stretch of waterfront lost an average of 7 feet of land a year between 2004 and 2011. The Cape Egmont Lighthouse, built in 1884, has already been relocated inland, and at least two other lighthouses are now threatened by the encroaching sea. Climate scientist Adam Fenech from the University of Prince Edward Island has shown residents a 3-D simulation of where the coastline is projected to be in 20 or 30 years. “I’ve seen men cry,” he said, when they realize their whole lives will “go underwater.”

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