Retreating from the shoreline isn’t the answer

TO THE EDITOR:

If you missed Orrin Pilkey’s latest dog and pony show to sell his new book on sea level rise, you avoided a colossal waste of time.

What was billed by the N.C. Coastal Federation as a primer on climate change degenerated into little more than a screed against those who disagree with him.

At one point, Pilkey characterized Durham as an oasis of intellectuals surrounded by an “anti-intellectual” movement.

The last time such hubris was on display, Galileo was threatened with excommunication for suggesting the earth was not the center of the universe.

With a degree from Florida State, Pilkey has parlayed himself into a self-proclaimed expert in geology, coastal engineering, beach erosion, climate control and meteorology.

As one of the first to hijack the environmental movement to further a social agenda, his mission in life is to validate his radical science; his mantra is to retreat from the shoreline.

Gov. Bev Perdue, Duke University, the N.C. Coastal Federation and the Coastal Area Management Act have exalted him to an academic pinnacle without equal.

For this achievement, Duke is eternally grateful not only for the prestige but also for the millions in successful grants.

There is nothing prophetic in his outrageous apocalyptic tactics, yet no one holds him accountable.

Extinction of piping plover, coquina, mold crabs, ghost crabs, sea turtles, seafood estuaries have been used for 30 years to further retreat from the shoreline, while the species not only survive, they thrive!

His tactics are a blueprint for environmental fringe groups like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nicholas School for the Environment.

In the firm belief you can fool some people all of the time, Pilkey sells Pilkey like Procter and Gamble sell soap suds. Unlike Pilkey, however, soap suds do have socially redeeming value.

Joe Exum

Executive Director Emeritus

Bogue Banks Environmental Stewardship Corporation