Letters

The Express News Group is to be commended for its consistent and informative coverage of climate change. Over the past months, mention or analysis of climate change can be found in all sections of the paper: News, Opinion, Arts & Living, Community and Residence.

Among other things, readers have learned that local architects, informed by Federal Emergency Management Agency standards, are incorporating climate adaptive features in design plans. Students are addressing climate through research projects. Artists are incorporating climate change themes in their work. Columnists, in the wake of Hurricane Ian, are warning about building too close to the ocean and on our fragile barrier beaches.

Michael Wright’s article “Stony Brook Student Testing Scallop Die-Off Theories” [27east.com, August 31] informed us of the ongoing research into the demise of bay scallops, and, in “Don’t Give Up” [Editorial, November 10], the newspaper made the connection between climate change and bay scallop demise: “Warming waters due to climate change and the spread of scallop parasites, also likely due to climate change, have made the task even more difficult — but not an insurmountable challenge.”

I agree with The Express News Group that we should utilize the science at our disposal to find methods to grow scallops. Along those lines, scientists will be paying close attention to the degree to which warming waters will make future scallop harvests difficult. The publication Inside Climate News reports: “Ocean heat content reached a new record high for the fourth year in a row.”

Broadening the lens from local to global concerns, scientists find that high ocean heat content has impacts across the globe, with significant scientific inquiry now focused on Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica. Briefly, and in laymen terms, Thwaites is a huge glacier sitting on an ice sheet that is in the process of being detached from a protective ice shelf due to high ocean heat content and its melting effects. This melting and loosening process can eventually lead to sea rise harmful to coastal communities. Climate scientists are concerned about the speed of this process — it’s not on a geologic timescale. Years, rather than centuries.

I don’t know when, but I’m hoping that national news outlets give the same attention to Thwaites Glacier as our local press does to other aspects of climate change. I’d settle for a tenth of the coverage that is given to Congressman George Santos. I think that’s his name.

Mike Anthony

Westhampton