1998 Year of the Ocean Impacts of Global Climate Change 



Issues Pertaining to Education and Human Resources 



Education, training, and outreach that target all sectors of society are essential 

 components in the successful implementation of Integrated Coastal Management and climate 

 change adaptation strategies. In July 1997, President Clinton launched a campaign to educate 

 Americans about global warming and build support for the steps necessary to deal with it, 

 including the United States agreement to binding reductions in greenhouse gases that were 

 negotiated at the international conference on climate change during December 1 997 in Kyoto, 

 Japan. This led to a U.S. agreement for binding reductions in greenhouse gases that were 

 negotiated at an international conference on climate change during December 1997 in Kyoto, 

 Japan. However, as a July 21, 1997 article in the Washington Post pointed out, President Clinton 

 faces an uphill battle in trying to "sell the public on the urgency that, in many minds, looms far in 

 the future, if it exists at all." The article goes on to say that the message is being met skeptically, 

 and in some instances, with outright hostility, particularly by certain U.S. industries and labor 

 groups which maintain that the scientific evidence is unconvincing and the economic 

 repercussions potentially disastrous. 



Despite the scientific evidence that sea level is rising globally as a result of climate 

 change, many individual homeowners continue to purchase beach-front property that is 

 threatened even now by beach erosion resulting from human (obstruction of natural sand 

 replenishment from construction of jetties, sea walls, sand mining, etc.) and natural (storms and 

 hurricanes) causes. In some cases, people are unaware of the risk. In other cases, people who 

 understand the risks are willing to develop property in hazardous areas because the value they 

 place on inhabiting a shorefront home is larger than the expected damages from erosion and 

 storms. 



The willingness of some coastal residents to accept the risks of shorefront development 

 are apparent in the attitudes of two people quoted in a September 13, 1997 Washington Post 

 article about beach erosion in Holden Beach, North Carolina. One local resident whose home 

 was knocked from its foundations by Hurricane Fran decided to move her 45-year-old family 

 home just one lot back from property purchased by her father years ago. This lot is now beach 

 front property due to erosion. Her response is, "It concerns me but does not threaten me. I just 

 feel that it is fate — ^it's the same as getting in an airplane." 



Even a town official of Holden Beach, who made mitigation of coastal erosion one of his 

 top goals upon assuming his position, built his own home just 1,000 feet from the ocean, in an 

 area where erosion has been the greatest. His attitude is "It'll be fine for me — ^but my great- 

 grandchildren may have beach-front property." This attitude is not uncommon, the long-term 

 nature of the problem does not incite much urgency to take different action now. 



Well-designed public education programs should use target specific clientele — ^including 

 elected officials, user groups, women's groups, school children, and the general public — ^to 

 develop support for Integrated Coastal Management and climate change action plans. Public 

 education ought to include informal education programs that will reach all segments of the 



G-40 



