NC shouldn’t spend millions on a bridge to get people to the Outer Banks faster | Opinion

Welcome to NC Voices, where leaders, readers and experts from across North Carolina can speak on issues affecting our communities. Send submissions of 350 words or fewer to opinion@newsobserver.com.

Rethink Outer Banks bridge plan

Regarding “NC gets a big federal grant to replace an aging ‘lifeline’ to the Outer Banks,” (Jan. 4):

The writer is a professor emeritus of Earth Sciences at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

The N.C. Department of Transportation is planning to spend $119 million to build a higher and wider U.S. 64 bridge over the Alligator River to make access to the Outer Banks shorter and more convenient.

The money is coming from a federal grant designed to help replace a 60-year-old bridge. In announcing the grant Gov. Roy Cooper described the bridge as a lifeline for people going to and from the Outer Banks.

But considering the ongoing, accelerating sea-level rise and the increased intensity of storms, should easing access to the barrier islands be a high priority?

On the sea level rise front, recent evidence published in Geoscience Research Letters indicates that Greenland Ice may be melting as much as 100 times faster than previously assumed, which will accelerate sea-level rise.

Let’s face it, the rate of loss of beachfront development and roads is going to significantly increase in coming years. Instead of spending millions of dollars to make beach access more convenient, the time has come to spend the “bridge money” on managed retreat from the retreating shoreline.

In North Carolina, managed retreat involves moving buildings to higher elevations on the island or moving them to the nearby mainland.

Elsewhere around the world, a number of communities are already pursuing a managed retreat response to the rising seas, and they’re using taxpayer funding. They include, among others, Taholah, Washington, Maui County, Hawaii, Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, Perce, Quebec, and Matata, New Zealand.

Fiji and many other Pacific Islands plan to move back the bulk of their populations, and Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is moving to another island.

We should consider changing our priorities and take a longer view of coastal management in North Carolina.

Orrin H. Pilkey

Pass these guns laws in 2023

The writer is a second grader teacher in North Carolina who started a group called NC Teachers for Safe Firearms Storage.

More than 43,790 people were killed in the United States by gunfire in 2022. That includes deaths by homicide, murder, unintentional, defensive gun use, and suicide.

More than 38,053 people were injured by gunfire in 2022.

With three days remaining in 2022, the Gun Violence Archive had recorded the most deaths due to gun violence since the nonprofit was founded in 2014.

It has been almost four years since I survived the UNC Charlotte mass shooting. I was attending UNCC at the time, though not in the classroom where the shooting occurred. Now, I am a second year teacher in North Carolina left wondering how safe our communities are.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, 752 people died from gun violence in North Carolina in 2022.

There were 21 mass shootings, defined as incidents where four or more victims are injured or killed (excluding the perpetrator).

There were nine incidents in 2022 where an assault rifle was used in an N.C. shooting. Five children, ages 11 and under, were shot and killed in unintentional shootings.

In all, there were 1,629 documented incidents of gun violence in the state and 1,247 people injured because of gun violence.

According to a report by the Secret Service, 76% of school shooters use a household family member’s or relative’s unsecured firearm. Authorities say a Virginia 6-year-old who shot his teacher last week used his mother’s handgun.

Firearm injury is the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. Congress must pass Ethan’s Law, which focuses on safe gun storage and preventing guns deaths of children. And researchers estimate if we still had a federal assault weapons ban, we’d suffer 70% fewer mass shooting deaths.

The 118th Congress has begun. To make North Carolina safe, our politicians must pass the Assault Weapons Ban and Ethan’s Law.

Anna Johnson, Cary