Opinion: San Diego, the Navy must collaborate on climate - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Opinion: San Diego, the Navy must collaborate on climate - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Opinion: San Diego and the Navy are uniquely positioned to respond to climate change. Here’s how.

Sustainable aquaculture, coastal habitat restoration and conservation goals act synergistically with economic development opportunities in San Diego and merit the Navy’s support

Ward is a researcher at University of Oxford and adjunct professor at San Diego State University and lives in Hillcrest. Roland is an active-duty aviator and lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and a student at the University of San Diego School of Law, and lives in Pacific Beach.

Extreme weather attributable to climate change is costing the United States $143 billion per year and damaging military bases in affected areas. Coastal erosion, sea level rise and storm surge negatively affect beachfront military bases, and the threats will continue to grow in frequency and cost as climate change progresses. Across the globe, blue economy growth and sustainable management of natural ecosystems (“nature-based solutions”) are being used to make coastal industries and habitats resilient to climate change. Locally, the San Diego Association Of Governments’ reports show shrinking beaches in Coronado and Southern California and mayors are meeting to discuss coastal erosion and resiliency.

The Navy has been at the forefront of climate change research for decades, but the U.S. Department of Defense uses more fossil fuels than any other single institution in the world, and the Navy is notably absent from these reports and conversations taking place in San Diego. Historic dredging, in part to accommodate the Navy, contributed to a loss of 15 percent of the San Diego Bay’s natural habitats and 70 percent of its salt marshes. The Navy is currently creating some Bay habitats, like transplanting eelgrass at several locations throughout the bay, but only to mitigate their ongoing damages, not to restore beyond the scope of their current impact. Preventing continued loss is valuable, but it is not always successful, and there is an opportunity for much more. By leading the charge in ocean restoration and blue economy projects, the Navy would be taking much-needed remediative action while making tangible progress on climate resilience.

The military footprint in California is vast. Owning 3.7 percent of the state’s total land, with 13 piers stretching over almost 1,000 acres of land and 326 acres of water at San Diego Naval Base alone, and 17 miles of coastline at Camp Pendleton, the military has an incredible amount of property to leverage for climate resilience. San Diego’s local government — both at the city and county levels — is therefore uniquely positioned to collaborate with the Navy on a response to climate change. Ocean and coastal property in particular can be leveraged for improved defense, climate resilience and economic development. For example, no other ecosystem in California can, on an acre-for-acre basis, soak up more carbon than coastal wetlands and seagrass beds (more than 10 times faster than terrestrial forests).

The benefits of nature-based solutions are vast. Healthy coastal habitats such as oyster reefs, seagrass meadows, wetlands and kelp forests can also buffer against storm surge, keep pace with sea level rise, prevent coastal erosion and improve water quality. A coordinated strategy to restore these habitats and natural coastal floodplains on military property could facilitate return of these services. Their restoration is already recognized as a cost-effective alternative to many engineering approaches to coastal protection (e.g., seawall and levee construction). In Virginia, the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is currently undergoing efforts to restore 3 acres of coastal land and stabilize almost 1,000 feet of flooding and eroding shoreline, in part by building artificial oyster reefs. To prevent an urgent need for repairs, San Diego can work proactively and preemptively to support critical shorelines.

Nature-based strategies can also support a “blue economy” by increasing biodiversity and supporting populations of economically valuable species. For example, San Diego’s spiny lobster and urchin fisheries depend on healthy coastal ecosystems — these animals that make their way into local eateries across the county. Water space abutting U.S. military bases and existing infrastructure could be leveraged for sustainable aquaculture, unleashing untapped commercial potential and environmental benefits. California has already demonstrated that wharfs can be used to support aquaculture, offering a unique Navy opportunity that falls within the port’s existing goals. Piers, rigs and armored shorelines can be also built and enhanced with materials that support biodiversity and native shellfish capable of improving water quality.

San Diego only stands to benefit from swift action on nature-based strategies that build climate resilience. Sustainable aquaculture, coastal habitat restoration and conservation goals act synergistically with economic development opportunities in San Diego and merit the Navy’s support. These efforts have the potential to positively affect public perception about the Navy’s role as a global force for good, and in the largest recruiting drought since the end of the Vietnam War, the military can use all the good press it can get.

This would also serve as a proof-of-concept for future collaborations on climate resilience between the military and the communities that host them, while serving the city’s interests. And though San Diego — sitting as the eighth- largest city in the United States — often looks to the bigger cities as a model, this is an opportunity for us to lead.

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