Despite denials by three of the eight Republican presidential candidates last year, all life on Earth came from the sea. The evidence is overwhelming. (Among other factoids: the percentage of salt in the human body is exactly the same as in the world oceans.) And, to a large extent, the fate of the world’s oceans is the fate of humanity.
Cod fishing began in earnest about the time of Civil War – only a century and a half ago – but cod are now 95 percent depleted. Only 30 percent of the Pacific salmon population remains to make the quadrennial journey to spawn. Entire fish species are disappearing. Sushi soon will be only a memory in Shikoku. Unless The Rapture truly is imminent, or suicidal Arabs get hold of nuclear weapons, world population will rise from the current 5 billion to more than 9 billion within the short future. Not only do many of these people depend on the sea for food, but also nearly half the world population lives within 50 miles of an ocean. And there is evidence these oceans are rising.
Even if Al Gore is mistaken and the earth is not in fact warming, for some reason or other, the polar caps are melting into the world’s oceans. If this trend continues, simple mathematics assure us the sea levels will rise.
In an attempt to see what this means to this part of Maine, Lucius Flatley, who is old enough to remember long-disappeared beach along the Camp Ellis and Saco waterfront, led a discussion in the coffee shop last week.
Government records show the sea to have risen eight inches in last century, he said, but the amount of future rise is a matter of dispute. Conservatives insist it will not exceed four feet (if, in fact, it is occurring at all). Liberals forecast as much as 17 feet. The coffee drinkers agreed that the correct figure probably lies somewhere between those two. So they considered several scenarios.
First, the members selected the minimum forecast of four feet and applied it to Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth and Portland.
At four feet the Scarborough marshes will be submerged. Pine Point and Old Orchard will be suitable for lobstering. When the Maine Mall submerges, South Portland will declare bankruptcy and become a part of Cape Elizabeth. The Cape itself will become a large island. In Portland, Commercial Street will be flooded and DiMillo’s will be the only waterfront business to survive – although Becky’s will relocate to Munjoy Hill. Westbrook, Windham and Gorham will be largely unaffected.
At seven feet, Portland’s waterfront will retreat to Congress Street and the City Council will consider a Venetian solution – a fleet of gondolas with romantic tenors to pole tourists around Deering Oaks. The Eastland Hotel will become a lighthouse – the only Coast Guard facility in the United States with a cocktail lounge on the roof.
During the decades while the sea is rising to seven feet, the Democrats in the state Legislature will recommend a dam from South Portland to Harpswell in order to keep Casco Bay at constant level. They will claim it to be a great economic stimulus that would make Maine green. The Republicans will defeat the proposal because, they will claim, long-range ocean rising has never been really proven. And besides, such a project might encourage same-sex marriage.
When seven feet is reached, Scarborough will be mostly three isolated elevations: Scottow Hill, Dunstan Corner and Oak Hill. Scarborough Downs will be become a large and profitable marina with a casino. Cape will be mostly a series of estates on small islands isolated on rocky hilltops. Fort Williams will become an offshore satellite of Guantanamo, which the government had never been able to close. The Portland Jetport will move to Bangor and will be renamed the Maine Intergalactic Spaceport. Westbrook will be noted chiefly for the Sappi chimney used as a navigation landmark.
At 17 feet, Portland, Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough and Westbrook will be largely an island archipelago served by ferries. Gorham will become prime oceanfront property, causing the size of the police force to expand beyond all reason.
The coffee-drinkers group voted to take a 50-year option on 100 acres of the Flatley farm in North Gorham.
Rodney Quinn, who lives in Gorham, is a former Maine secretary of state. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.
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