The book "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson was written in 1962 — 60 years ago. She tried to spread the word that we were destroying our planet and we needed to start paying attention. There was a memo written to Jimmy Carter in 1977 by his science advisor, Frank Press, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which warned him of the “possibility of catastrophic climate change” from the release of carbon dioxide. Starting in 1989 Al Gore presented a slide show over 1,000 times before it became part of a documentary movie released in 2007, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Presidents and the government seemed to dabble in climate change but not one embraced it as a crisis level situation. And here we are.

I started coming to Little Compton in 1965, my family buying a home in 1974 for year round residency, right up the road from South Shore Beach. Though we have been devoted Briggs Beach patrons for beaching, South Shore Beach as a walking destination was also frequented due to its proximity. When I moved to the “Pharm” with my now grown children in 2008, I walked to South Shore almost every day and, I must say, even in just these 15-plus years, the changes in the beach have been dramatic.
This is the town’s beach. It is managed and operated by the town of Little Compton. And, yet, from all indications, there continues to be no long-range plan for saving the beach — which, if there is, should have been put into place starting 20-plus years ago. Each year the beach erodes a little more and a little more.

How is the town going to save it? What are the plans? What were the plans when it was obvious that something had to be done? Is there a long-range capital budget that started 20 years ago so that there would be money saved up to help implement a protocol to save the beach? It’s not like no one knew that this was going to be a problem. What is the plan? My goodness — the same political party has been running this town for decades — where is your plan for saving our beach?

Bonnie Phinney
Little Compton