Beachless Summer
I hope this will be enough to be a wake-up call for the climate-change sceptics, and a call for the non-sceptics to double-down on efforts to do something.
It's looking dire.
Really dire.
The algal bloom that was first reported in March this year isn't going away as hoped. The modelling I can find indicates that while it's going to improve over winter (it barely has) it's going to pick up again come summer. My understanding is that now that it's going, it's a feedback loop where decaying sea-life is providing the food/nutrients for the algal bloom, making it worse, and the only thing we can hope for is that something non-harmful can move in and start consuming the algae, settling things back down.
This algal bloom is clearly and directly affecting our oceans. It's clearly and directly affecting us. It's affecting tourism. It's affecting our fishing industry. I hope this will be enough to be a wake-up call for the climate-change sceptics, and a call for the non-sceptics to double-down on efforts to do something.
Climate change is now on our doorsteps.
I'm bracing for a beachless summer, 25-26.
No lingering evenings on the paddle board at Port Willunga.
No skinnydips at Maslins.
No fish, chips, and dips at West Beach.
Next time you have the option (because not everyone does) to ride a bike instead of driving a car, or to catch a train instead of flying, please consider it. There are big things that need to happen for climate change to be reversed, so it can sometimes feel like there's nothing we can individually do. But many little things combine into a big thing.
Hopefully we can avoid a second beachless summer.