Environmental officer says NJ needs climate change plan

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s high environmental officer says the state isn’t prepared for the worsening results of local weather change and rising seas.

Testifying Thursday to a joint state Senate-Meeting panel on coastal points, Shawn LaTourette, the commissioner of Environmental Safety, mentioned New Jersey isn’t the place it must be within the face of a warming planet and rising seas.

“We should always all be alarmed,” he mentioned. “We aren’t prepared. However empowered by sound science, we will prepare. We’ve the ability now to alter this.”

LaTourette famous that the state is arising on the anniversary of Hurricane Ida, which he mentioned was liable for 30 deaths within the state.

He mentioned rainfall has elevated over the past 23 years by between 2% to 10% within the state, with bigger share will increase forecasted for the near-term future.

“The Idas and the Sandys will come,” he mentioned. “We have to plan for it.”

LaTourette mentioned the state wants to mix engineered initiatives equivalent to bulkheads, replenished seashores and different exhausting obstacles with pure options, together with restoring marshes and wetlands to soak up flood waters and blunt the power of storm waves.

In April 2021, the state proposed an bold resiliency plan aiming to include the impacts of local weather change and rising seas into all its main coverage selections within the close to future and in search of to share the prices of defending the state amongst all ranges of presidency and the personal sector.

The plan seeks to incentivize folks to maneuver from flood-prone areas to safer ones, assist low-income communities who’re least in a position to answer the results of local weather change and search new funding for resiliency measures.

LaTourette mentioned circumstances “will solely worsen” in years to return, and that even when the state absolutely adopted nuclear, wind and solar energy, it nonetheless wouldn’t offset the harm already performed to the surroundings by previous emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases.

“We may do all that tomorrow, and circumstances nonetheless would worsen,” he mentioned. “We’ve no selection however to change into resilient. These alarming circumstances are precisely what scientists and the DEP mentioned had been coming.”

Eric Olsen, director of conservation packages with The Nature Conservancy, referred to as on the state to make a serious push to revive salt marshes and wetlands.

“Growing the well being of New Jersey’s salt marshes will defend folks’s properties by storing water, absorbing carbon and lowering wave motion,” he mentioned.

Raymond Cantor, vp of presidency affairs on the New Jersey Enterprise & Trade Affiliation, mentioned local weather change and rising sea ranges are actual and are occurring now. However he additionally urged the elected officers to not go too far with proposed options.

“There isn’t any want at this second to retreat from the Jersey Shore,” he mentioned.

Tom Fote of the Jersey Coast Anglers Affiliation mentioned warming ocean temperatures are negatively impacting fishing off the state’s coast, pushing cold-water species out and bringing in others that by no means was discovered this far north.

“We had a viable lobster business, and we’ve seen that collapse,” he mentioned. “We’ve a manatee that normally lives in Florida that makes a visit to New Jersey annually.”

LaTourette mentioned the state, its residents and companies have to summon “political braveness” to handle resiliency challenges that would take years to point out advantages.

“In the event you hear urgency in my voice, it’s as a result of we’re not prepared,” he mentioned. “However we might be.”

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Observe Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC