After seeing how the winter storms have remodeled South Shore Beach once again, it became apparent to me that nature is taking the beach back. A breakwater of sorts is built every winter season, this year the most significant one so far. And once again the beach commission, will disassemble it with excavating equipment, to recreate the parking lot and a very small beach area. Jim Farrell, beach manager, stated that in 1980 there was 50 feet of beach at low tide, now there is 20. We are loosing the beach faster and faster now.

The beach commission plans to apply for FEMA monies and taxpayer dollars in order to open for the 2024 season. Is this sustainable?  With the Earth warming and sea level rise more and more apparent, and with the extensive and expensive work needed to be done to have a beach, does this still make sense? Many town residents do not even use the beach, due to lack of parking access and overcrowding.

In a recent story from Salisbury, Ma., a coastal neighborhood collaborated to bolster up the coastline in front of their properties with 15,000 tons of sand. Three days after completion, a storm washed away their mitigation efforts. Now the same homeowners are seeking relief from the state. Will coastal communities continue to seek funds for futile efforts to save beachfront homes and coastline? Again I ask, is this sustainable??

Climate change is real, it is here and it is not going away. It is time to take it seriously.

Sheri Massa

Little Compton