As the massive and powerful Hurricane Dorian barrels towards Florida's east coast, two things are certain: 1) climate change is real, and 2) we need more mangroves.
First off, no one can now sensibly deny that human caused climate change is causing more extreme weather patterns than we have ever seen before. From wildfires, to polar vortexes, to this season's already massive hurricane, climate change is real, and we are going to have to deal with the extreme weather consequences which human kind has wrought.
As coastal communities in Florida and up the east coast worry and prepare for the worst to come from Dorian, now is the best time to examine the role of one of our best coastal defence mechanisms: mangroves.
Mangroves contribute to reducing loss of life and damage to property from storms and cyclones as they reduce the impacts of waves, storm surges and high winds. Thus, mangroves and mangrove forests are of vital importance in securing our coastlines and helping to mitigate the damage of hurricanes and other big storms! Want to learn how they do it?
Here's how:
Mangroves reduce the height and energy of wind and swell waves passing through them, reducing their ability to erode sediments and to cause damage to structures such as dikes and seawalls. During rising tides, as the sea comes in, waves enter the mangrove forests. They lose energy as they pass through the tangled above-ground roots and branches and their height is rapidly diminished, by between 13 and 66% over 100 m of mangroves, as a study by the Nature Conservancy found. As this happens, waves lose their ability to scour the sea bed and carry away sediments. Mangroves also reduce winds across the surface of the water and this prevents the propagation or re-formation of waves.
So instead of prayers and hoping that a hurricane's damage won't be bad year after year, let's plant more mangroves and restore the ecosystems that we have already destroyed.
Decision makers, and the public, need to take full account of the many benefits that mangroves provide, and consider the true costs that may incur from mangrove loss.
And to the mangroves:
Thank you, mangroves, for doing your part in what you can in protecting us from the dangers of damaging storms and hurricanes.
Now, it is our duty to protect you.