Plan to reduce climate impacts

If you take a walk along the beach from Ocean Beach Surf Club to Ettalong you cannot avoid noticing extensive foreshore erosion.

You will also appreciate that this narrow strip of dune and dune vegetation is the only protection The Esplanade and all the adjoining waterfront properties have from the impact of the ocean. You will be able to note that where there is little vegetation, or where vegetation has been removed (eg, near Ocean Beach Surf Club) the impact of higher tides and ocean swells has been greatest and there is little protection left.

Climate science has informed us that rising sea levels are to be expected in the future.

Recent scientific information based on increased arctic glacial melting forecasts increased sea levels of at least a metre by the end of the century.

Such an increase, in terms of foreshore water inundation, means 100 metres of foreshore will suffer.

Gosford Council is well aware of these dangers - it has detailed maps showing how rising sea levels will impact the Peninsula and other areas such as Davistown and the Gosford waterfront.

It has also been advised by the State Government's Planning Department not to plan to increase zonings for coastal risk areas such as the low-lying Peninsula.

Council is thus between a rock and a hard place - does it go with commercial pressures to increase population and zoning as proposed by the Peninsula Chamber of Commerce or does it look to residents' long-term future and start to plan now to reduce the impacts of climate change?

For those of us who believe in climate change, a decision to protect the long-term interest of residents is a "no-brainer".

Email, 9 May 2011 Michael Gillian, Ettalong