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“Humans are part of nature too”
Christine Avenarius (2014). In: Anthropology News 55 (4).
The need to prepare for change
We often hear that the American public has little understanding of scientific evidence for imminent
climate change and that few Americans experience the effects of climate change in their own
backyards (Akerlof and Maibach 2011). However, in recent years, two seemingly contradictory
trends are beginning to mutually affect each other. More people than ever before have moved to
coastal counties in the United States. At present 29% of the national population live in coastal
counties, contributing to 45% of the annual GDP (Wilson and Fischetti 2010). At the same time,
scientist predict that sea levels along the eastern seaboard will rise more than 3 feet or about 39
inches by 2100, putting large areas of coastal counties under water (Rahmstorf 2007).
Photo: Dare County beaches by James Coleman LLC
The Outer Banks of North Carolina: the Case of Dare County
The Outer Banks of North Carolina are a set of barrier islands separated by dynamic inlets created
by hurricanes and shifting sand (Riggs et al. 2009). Dare County remained isolated from the
mainland longer than other coastal areas. Prior to the creation of a dune system by the Works
Progress Association (WPA) projects in the late 1930s no man-made structures managed the effects
of tidal surges. Until the 1970s the year round population was barely 7000 people. But at the
beginning of the 1980s the population had doubled and doubled again by the mid 1990s. Currently
about 34 000 people reside permanently in Dare County. Between June and August the daily
population rises to between 225 000 and 300 000 people (Dare County Statistics). The imminent
sea-level rise affects predominately vacation rental homes along the oceanfront and private
residences on the sound side of the islands.
What are local residents going to do about the encroaching ocean?
Scientists expected planners to consider rising water when designing new bridges, roads, and sewer
lines and suggested a stop on building structures in the flood zones (Poulter et al 2009). However,
county managers and economic advisors of the 20 coastal communities in North Carolina, also
known as NC-20, wanted to avoid rash changes to building codes and pending adjustments to
flood insurance policies. They successfully lobbied for the ratification of State House Bill 819,
putting a moratorium on sea level rise recommendations for four years.
This inspired our team of five cultural anthropologists from East Carolina University, including
four graduate students, to find out what local residents of the Outer Banks have noticed about their
natural environment, what language they use to identify continuity and change, how they explain
and reason about their observations, and what suggestions they have for local policy development
and resource allocation. The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation sponsored this community project. We
engaged in conversations that each lasted about 75 minutes and included open ended questions, pile
sort and sentence completion tasks with a quota sample of 208 local residents. Participants were
neither political decision makers, elected officials, nor media personnel. We contacted people by
volunteering in the community, attending community events and using alumni lists of nearby
universities.
Going into the project we were told by both politicians and local environmental activists that there
are only two teams in Dare County: people who will protect nature no matter who it hurts
economically, and people who will fuel the economy no matter how much nature it kills.
Here is what we learned. Though only 20% of participants mention sea-level rise without being
prompted for it, almost everyone talks about the shifting shoreline and encroachment of the ocean
at well known landmarks, such as hotels and restaurants. At high tide these landmarks used to have
a football field of space between them and the waterline. Some of them are now fending off the tide
with the help of sand bags surrounding their outer walls.
Text analysis of the descriptions of the current state of the Dare County environment showed that
most participants reference the “power of mother nature.” Typical statements include “Mother
nature is going to carve this island the way she wants to;”and “Trying to manage a barrier island
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is like taking a wild child and making him sit still in the seat.” This fits the American cultural
model that describes nature as a constantly changing entity (Bang et al 2007). Statements about
nature’s prowess were usually followed by explanations for the current problems caused by an
intruding shoreline: “We made a big mistake: we built up the dunes and built houses nearby. That
should have never happened.” And “We fool ourselves into thinking that we have nice natural
beaches. We have stopped the natural process.”
Searching for ways to embrace mother nature
When asked about adaptation strategies to address the pending sea-level rise, the most often cited
suggestion is beach nourishment. To date only one of the five incorporated townships and 8
unincorporated areas with ocean front in Dare County has undertaken beach nourishment. Since
2011 this project has become a point of reference. However, about 40% of interviewed residents are
against nourishment projects summarized by the following statement “The beach is always going
to be there. It just might not be where it is today. Trying to preserve these beaches is like pissing in
the wind.” It doesn’t follow that all others are in favor of it. Among supporters of beach
nourishment efforts, only one third of all conversation partners, about 20% of the total sample,
applaud beach nourishment without reservations. “The first beach nourishment project was a
success. We need to do projects like that because the beach is our biggest resource.” The
remaining 40% reluctantly support beach nourishment efforts, expressing a doubtful attitude about
the long term feasibility of such projects. “I hate the expense of beach nourishment and it might
just last 4 years or so. But it has helped the economy, helped us stay.”
Photo: Nags Head houses in the surf zone by Leah Elizabeth Photography
A detailed look at the demographic distribution of opinions reveals that younger residents between
18 and 30 and residents over 60 years of age, including most retirees, are more likely to vote
against beach nourishment, especially when they grew up in Dare County. Business owners who
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spent about 25 to 50% of their lifetime in Dare County are more likely than employees, retirees and
unemployed folks to support beach nourishment without reservations. All others are skeptical about
the success of man made structures over natural processes, but feel too engulfed by the demands of
their daily activities and economic situation to take a stance against procedures that are promoted as
a means to guarantee tourist satisfaction. For many local residents these realizations emerged
during the conversations with a member of our research team. Almost everyone of the reluctant
supporters commented that he or she might be considered a hypocrite because their belief that
nature is untamable stands in contradiction to their advocacy for manipulating nature in the name of
tourism promotion.
Avid rejecters of beach nourishment arrived at similar insights when they were asked to sort
infrastructure projects for the county by their perceived feasibility. They reluctantly sorted the
dredging of Oregon Inlet into their ‘must finance’ pile. Oregon Inlet is an opening between Bodie
island and Pea island that first appeared after a hurricane event in 1846 and was measured to have
moved 2.5 miles southward between 1849 and 1989 (Riggs et al. 2009). Despite the shifting sands,
in 1962 the inlet was spanned by the Bonner Bridge and constitutes the only opening to the ocean
for deep sea fishing boats. Few participants are willing to argue that allowing nature to take its
course should include letting Oregon Inlet close naturally since it would also cause the closure of
commercial fisheries.
What to make of these realizations?
Dare County residents’ evaluation of their natural and economic environment are less polarized
than predicted. Understanding of natural processes is more detailed and profound than anticipated.
Not surprisingly, economic costs are the overriding feature that most people consider in their
suggestions for best practices to ensure the natural and economic sustainability of the Outer Banks.
Uncertainties about the economic future are more “real” than uncertainties about future storm
surges. An individual’s position in his or her lifecycle accounts for most differences in the
assessment of sea-level mitigation strategies. Retirees worry about their fixed income. Young
people don’t have a mortgage yet. However, the majority of local residents adhere to the sentiment
‘let mother nature do her thing, but let me make money first’. They rationalize their choice with
culturally well established optimism, as in: “I like to think that we will be able to use technology to
address these problems.”
An interesting side-effect of this project is that many participants thank us for the eye-opening
questions we put before them. Currently we are returning the collected voices to community groups
by making presentations at weekly meetings and publishing findings in local media outlets.
Audience members who took part in the study tell us we made them reflect their own position in
light of conflicting arguments. In discussions about suitable adaptations that may bridge the needs
of both nature and humans, we often hear “but humans are part of nature too.” About a third of
encounters lead to the realization that “Nature is our business in Dare County… lets merge the need
for economic stability with the need to keep the natural in nature.”
We consider our approach to data collection and dissemination an important contribution of cultural
anthropology to the climate change debate. By listening to individual citizens and inviting them to
reflect why they do what they do, we stimulate interest and engagement. By returning voices to
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community members, we create awareness and possibly motivation to find an alternative to the
habit of waiting to act until the water is literally at the residential doorsteps.
Photo: Relicts of a shut down amusement park on Hatteras Island, by Leah Elizabeth Photography
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