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Stories Changing Coastlines Tell About Climate Change  

A slew of policy changes in India looks to create yet more infrastructure on fragile coasts, writes Neha Sinha.

Damaged houses and grounded fishing boats stand along the coastline after Cyclone Fani in the Puri district of Odisha, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
Damaged houses and grounded fishing boats stand along the coastline after Cyclone Fani in the Puri district of Odisha, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

The coastline is a space of change. The low tide is deceptive, spreading a fishy smell over the landscape, a watery meadow that lightly bucks and rolls. As the high tide comes in though, the water reclaims all that was considered calm and terrestrial a few moments ago. It rushes to devour drying and low-lying areas. The tides dance to their own music, forcing people to bend to the time kept by tides rather than time kept by watches. All the great port cities of the world know this.

But other things are afoot. Climate change studies show that coastlines are not just spaces for light temporal change, but also for irreversible changes. Many climate change predictions are fifty or hundred years away. The ones for coastlines are here much sooner, some already evident. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change in its ‘special report on the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate’, released last year, emphasises what we are already experiencing. The global ocean has been warming since 1970, absorbing more than 90 percent of “excess heat in the climate system.” Global mean sea level is rising: the IPCC now says between 2006-2015 sea level rose at a pace of 3.6 millimetres per year, which is 2.5 time the rate since 1901-1990 (the rate of sea level rise in that period was 1.4 millimetres per year). The IPCC also points out that tropical cyclones—many of which hit coasts—are increasing.

At least two things become apparent.

  • One, coastal areas are likely to be inundated in the next few decades.
  • Two, planning large projects on the coastline should be done thoughtfully.

Under no circumstance must they further worsen the impacts of sea level rise. For instance, large structures that can fall can make the impacts of submergence much worse.

Yet, a slew of policy changes in India looks to create more infrastructure on the coasts.
Coastal road barricades seen at Marine Drive. (Source: Aaran Patel/Save The Coast) 
Coastal road barricades seen at Marine Drive. (Source: Aaran Patel/Save The Coast) 

The Environment Ministry has recently changed its environmental clearance process system, allowing offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration to commence without environmental clearances. This is meant to ultimately make coastal oil and gas extraction easy. The issue is a complex one to address. The country does need oil and gas, and we need to stop our massive dependence on importing it, which also eats into our GDP. Yet, we also need to explore a better energy mix that goes beyond business as usual. Oil and gas companies prominently figure in the top 100 polluters on earth, which contribute to over 70 percent of greenhouse gases. Global warming is caused by fossil fuel burning; global warming causes glacier melt, sea level rise and sea level warming. To mitigate climate change, we need to go beyond traditional energy mixes by cutting down on fossil fuel.

Flamingos are often found in shallow brackish water in coastlines. (Image: Neha Sinha) 
Flamingos are often found in shallow brackish water in coastlines. (Image: Neha Sinha) 

Beyond the question of fossil fuel use itself is the very positioning of large projects on the coast. Large structures can ‘weaponise’ impacts of environmental stress and make catastrophic events worse in the scope.

Secondly, they also alter coastal hydrologies and ecosystems, further stressing coastal conditions.

The coastline today is real estate. Many would say these are construction projects rather than development projects.  
A mangrove forest. Mangroves have been proven to be a way forward for climate adaptation, securing the coast against storms coming from the sea. (Image: Neha Sinha) 
A mangrove forest. Mangroves have been proven to be a way forward for climate adaptation, securing the coast against storms coming from the sea. (Image: Neha Sinha) 

We do not have independent assessments of how many ports we need, or whether we are using existing ports well enough. But we are planning more ports.

For example, decks are moving for the expansion of the Kattupalli port in the outskirts of Chennai. The expansion will involve reclaiming land from the sea. The developer says this is to decongest the Chennai port, but the issue of how many ports we need—and of which size does come up.

Large changes on the coastline cause both seashore erosion as well as shore accretion (accumulation) in adjoining areas; this is because of a number of barriers or breakwaters that are built. For instance, the Ennore port in Tamil Nadu has caused sedimentation on a beach and the erosion of a sand barrier between Pulicat lake and the sea.

Pulicat is made of the gentle mixing of salt and fresh water from rivers; this sort of mix creates areas that are amongst the most germane and productive in wetlands.

Pulicat is India’s second largest lagoon, has more than 200 varieties of fish, and hosts hundreds of thousands of birds each year.

Migratory Bar-headed geese and Black-tailed Godwits at Chilika lagoon, Odisha. (Image: Neha Sinha)   
Migratory Bar-headed geese and Black-tailed Godwits at Chilika lagoon, Odisha. (Image: Neha Sinha)   
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Fishermen have been protesting against port expansion in the area, fearing a loss of livelihood.

The rhythm of Pulicat though is likely to be interrupted both by climate change as well as a circle of ports.

The larger question to be answered is how to go forward on coastal development – or a path of no-development on the coast.   
Freight trucks drive past gantry cranes and stacked containers at the port of Chennai. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)  
Freight trucks drive past gantry cranes and stacked containers at the port of Chennai. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)  

Making big projects on coast lines are five-year plans, the length of election cycles and quick dividends. Climate change forces us to think in decades; a turning forward of the clock rather than a living in the now. For a sea that’s warming, pollution from oil spills, construction effluents and debris, as well as morphological changes on coastline will make systems that find it harder to respond to extreme events and stresses.

It is no longer as simple as preparing for low and high tides. But in a way, the increase in our knowledge can also help us make better decisions. To plan for a changing sea, its crucial to put the fisherman at the same table as the environmental scientist and industrialist – this time, more than ever, we need to stop the clock and move decks for this dialogue.

Neha Sinha works with the Bombay Natural History Society.

Views expressed are personal. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BloombergQuint or its editorial team.