available public 4145 https://www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-promise/2022/04/saving-ellis-islands-history-from-rising-oceans/ 3066958656 cove 4145 NJ Spotlight News: Saving Ellis Island's history from rising oceans How can the island be protected without a seawall? Climate change threatens to drown Ellis Island. The gateway to the United States for 12 million immigrants holds a precarious place amidst rising seas on a warming planet. One model predicts the island will be submerged within 80 years. The problem -- how can we protect Ellis Island without surrounding it with a seawall that would diminish its historic value? 2022-04-22 21:00 publish disabled show show 5454 NJ Spotlight News: Saving Ellis Island's history from rising oceans How can the island be protected without a seawall? https://www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-promise/2023/03/world-predicted-to-surpass-global-warming-threshold/ 2022-04-22 21:00 https://www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-promise/files/2023/03/power-plant-6807566_1920-480x270.jpg cove 5243 NJ Spotlight News: Saving Ellis Island's history from rising oceans How can the island be protected without a seawall? https://www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-promise/2023/03/what-comes-next-for-venezuelas-oil-industry/ 2022-04-22 21:00 https://www.pbs.org/wnet/peril-and-promise/files/2023/03/Sheyene_Gerardi_-_Net_Worth-_700_Million2-480x270.jpg cove
Climate change threatens to drown Ellis Island. The gateway to the United States for 12 million immigrants holds a precarious place amidst rising seas on a warming planet. One model predicts the island will be submerged within 80 years. One proposed solution is to construct a seawall. Yet this could diminish the landmark’s historic value. The problem: How can we best protect Ellis Island?
TRANSCRIPTand on this earth day rising sea levels
pose an increasingly grave risk to the
way of life along new jersey's coast and
they're threatening to wash away parts
of our state's past as well
there are already 2500 historic sites in
the state that flood when waters reach
just two feet above the average high
tide and tens of thousands more are at
risk as waters reach even higher in a
collaboration between nj spotlight news
and climate central senior correspondent
brenda flanagan reports from ellis
island is part of our ongoing series
peril and promise focusing on the human
stories of climate change
they arrive at ellis island still starry
eyed from touring lady liberty
determined to somehow track their
family's american journey or marvel at
the history on display 12 million
immigrants passed through these
buildings hoping to build new lives in
america but climate change now threatens
the very island that preserves so much
cultural heritage we want to maintain
these places so that we can tell
people's stories and tell our collective
story which i think is really important
the national park service's air in
dempsey points to superstorm sandy as a
climate change wake-up call the storm
surge slammed into the island
obliterating infrastructure ripping up
ferry docks sandy blew in doors and
flooded generators at the powerhouse
everything that keeps the park running
and operating safely and gets visitors
here was was underwater and destroyed
with power down and climate control
destroyed rot and mildew threatened a
priceless collection of cultural
artifacts the park service mobilized a
disaster response team including museum
specialists spent six weeks
painstakingly packaging all of those
materials so that they were able to be
moved to a regional curatorial facility
for the duration of the repairs that
were happening here
but climate change continues to cloud
the future here at ellis an island
surrounded by almost 7 thousand feet of
granite seawall built in the early 1900s
it's uniquely vulnerable says rutgers
climate specialist wolfram halfer i know
it's a technical infrastructure that was
built at a time
when nobody was expecting seat improvise
even if people were producing it already
in the high time of industrialization
they were causing the trouble we have
today the warming planet fuels higher
tides and stronger storms that buffet
ellis its crumbling walls need extensive
repair that's now underway cranes
wielding pneumatic pile drivers pound
steel supports into the seabed to
withstand future storms and the oceans
climate changes impacted ellis island
long before superstorm sandy sea levels
here have risen about one and a half
feet since they began keeping
measurements back in the 1950s and if
you look at the seawall over there you
can see there's not much leeway left
only one tier of blocks remains above
the high tide line the islands already
expected to flood annually and a climate
central analysis found flood waters
could threaten its buildings multiple
times a year by the middle of this
century an interactive federal map
predicts three feet of sea level rise at
ellis within 50 years and six feet
within the next 80 years at that point
ellis is submerged the challenge is that
of course the scientists cannot give us
a very exact number
and uh so we have to think about all the
eventualities like all the uncertainties
of future this is part of our you know
cultural consciousness is to you know
experience the historic neighborhoods
what they bring
the materials that you just can't go to
home depot and replace nowadays and so
that's what we're trying to save and for
future generations to preserve it so
they can understand
you know what their heritage is and how
special you know a state like new jersey
is workers could raise the seawall but
the park service fears that would not
only change the island's historic
character it'd alter the whole
experience especially for people whose
ancestors processed through ellis island
and how a really tall
potentially fortress-like sea wall would
make them feel as they as they come over
so we're doing this rehabilitation work
making sure the masonry is in good shape
making sure it can stay as it is you
know for another 150 years with a 50
million dollar federal grant to spend on
climate resilience the park service
built a new mezzanine raising generators
up about 20 feet to keep the hvac system
out of storm's reach everything's
computerized it underscores the tension
between trying to preserve an historic
monument against climate change and
still maintain its historic value a lot
of the artifactual material that we have
are items that have been donated from
family members over over time
so i think that collection is really
important for the american public in
terms of its intrinsic kind of cultural
value to people's experience here at
ellis island and that's what that's what
potentially be lost that that history
that really deep personal connection
that people feel ellis halls a
precarious place amidst rising seas on a
warming planet but its buildings
artifacts and stories hold an iconic
place in the american narrative i'm
brenda flanagan nj spotlight news