Cape Cod Commission plan maps out how to take action on climate change wickedlocal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wickedlocal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BARNSTABLE Even in the middle of a global pandemic, climate change forced its way onto media front pages over the past year with record heat, droughts, water shortages and unprecedented flooding. It s not so much that climate change itself is proceeding faster than expected the warming is right in line with model predictions from decades ago, said climate scientist Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University in a July 26 Reuters article. Rather, it s the fact that some of the impacts are greater than scientists predicted.
With nearly 600 miles of sandy coastline, Cape Cod is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. Last week, the Cape Cod Commission released its climate change action report that lays out how the region can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a world undergoing massive and rapid change.
As Rebecca Miller waded into Mashpee’s Santuit Pond, mesh plankton net in hand, a vacationing couple walking a pair of dogs was retreating from the shoreline.
Like Miller, Matt Eastman and Alexis Parr are biologists, so they knew the importance of pulling the dogs back when they approached the pond’s gently lapping waters.
“Benni just tried to drink the water and I made sure to tell him not to,” Eastman said of the couple’s schnauzer mix. “I heard on the local news in Connecticut that with all the rain there are high bacteria levels.”
Eastman’s instinct was spot-on.
In this Enterprise file photo from October 2020, a cyanobacteria bloom turns the water in this section of Santuit Pond in Mashpee a milky green color. ENTERPRISE FILE PHOTOGRAPH/GENE M. MARCHAND
Cyanobacteria might sound familiar to some Upper Cape residents, and for good reason: levels of this prokaryotic bacteria have been on the rise in freshwater ecosystems across the region for years and with many Upper Cape ponds being monitored this summer, education regarding cyanobacteria is crucial.
Town health officials are working with the Association to Preserve Cape Cod to monitor blooms of cyanobacteria in addition to raising public awareness of the risks and advocating for increased attention to this public health issue.
When it comes to exactly what towns should do when cyanobacteria is detected at their beaches, there are no set of state- or even county-issued protocols in place for local health officials to follow.
The state has a set of guidelines; however, how closely those guidelines are followed are left largely to the discretion of local health agents, unlike when E. coli is detected and beaches are legally required to be closed until those levels drop.
âThereâs a process and everybody adheres to it,â said Sandwich Health Agent David Mason of the E. coli requirements.
Having a protocol makes it easier to answer the phone and inform someone as to why a particular beach is closed. No such protocol exists when it comes to cyanobacteria, leaving things up to the interpretation of each town.