Coastal erosion threatens to wash away D-Day beaches
Visitors pepper the length of Utah Beach in Normandy, France, some pausing to take photos, others simply staring out across the English Channel.
One passerby in a bright orange windbreaker stops to scoop a handful of sand into a plastic bag and tucks it into his satchel.
“Dad always wanted to come back. He just never had the chance” another man said.
Nearby, a mother and daughter crouch down and run their hands across the powder-smooth surface, then photograph the mark they’ve left.
The hallowed beaches of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, are one of the main attractions for the thousands who are making the pilgrimage to the coast of northern France to celebrate the 80th anniversary of its liberation from the Nazis.
Nearly 150,000 Allied troops landed or parachuted into the invasion area that day, including more than 14,000 Canadians. Of those Canadians, 381 were killed, 584 were wounded, and 131 were captured.
But those who wish to pay their respects to the sacrifices made along that coastline in 1944 are doing so on borrowed time. As a result of coastal erosion, some of the beaches of D-Day are disappearing.
Two-thirds of the coast is already eroding, according to a 2023 report from the Normandy Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is composed of regional specialists and scientists.
The report from the Normandy IPCC, which explores the local consequences of climate change, also mentions flooding concerns. It references a 2020 study by the national statistics bureau of France (INSEE), which reveals more than 122,000 residents and 54,000 jobs are “threatened by this marine flooding hazard.”
There’s also concern about the future of the monuments, museums, and memorabilia that adorn the beaches where the allies landed during the Second World War in 1944. The Normandy tourism office lists 124 places of remembrance across the region, the majority of which are near the coast.
Grappling with solutions
Xavier Michel, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Caen Normandy, has led research focused on social perceptions of D-Day sites in the context of climate change.
He found sentimental attachment to the beaches was a common response.
“Some people told us the emotion regarding this place comes from this unique location,” he said.
“It wouldn’t be possible to recreate it in the same way, the same link between visitors and heritage.”
Michel said some possible solutions to the erosion include reinforcing the beaches, relocating museums and monuments away from the coast, and for those residents whose well-being is at risk, moving away altogether.
Michel de Vallavielle, mayor of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, the small community crowned by Utah Beach, says efforts are being made to bolster the beach. They include keeping tourists off the dunes and planting d’oyats, a type of European beach grass that helps slow water flow and binds the sand together.
De Vallavieille’s own roots in the area run deep. His father was accidentally shot by American paratroopers during the landings and went on to open the local D-Day museum in 1962.
“If it disappears, part of the story disappears,” he said of the beaches.
Because of erosion along the French coast, some of the beaches that were central to the D-Day landings in 1944 are disappearing — threatening one of the main attractions for the thousands who are making the pilgrimage for this month’s 80th anniversary.
The Utah Beach Landing Museum, which appears to rise out of the sand like a Second World War bunker, marks one of five landing sites along the coast and the first of the invasion.
Sitting atop a compromised dune, marked by a crude wire fence designed to keep visitors away, the museum is secure for now. But one of its American sister sites, the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument, is perched upon a crumbling cliff face that has suffered numerous landslides as a result of natural erosion.
Protecting the past
The most recent landslide in November 2023 forced the closure of one of the U.S. site’s bunkers because it fell within the 20-metre required safety zone imposed by the American Battle Monuments Commission, according to Supt. Scott Desjardins.
“We want to welcome visitors in the safest way possible and in a manner that also ensures the preservation of this historic site,” Desjardins told the CBC in an emailed statement.
A further 40 kilometres along the coast, at Juno Beach, the site of the Canadian landing, the threat is not as imminent, says Juno Beach Centre director Nathalie Worthington.
“We are lucky because the dune is gaining on the sea,” she said, pointing to a bunker that was once lapped at by the Channel’s waves and is now buffered by a sandy beach.
“The threat is not as important as in other places on the coast. But we are surrounded by 300 degrees of water. We’ve got the sea, we’ve got the harbour and we’ve got a river.”
It is not a question of if the Juno Beach Centre and all its monuments will be flooded, but when, she said.
Worthington says they are “doing their share” to fight the effects of climate change, such as reducing carbon emissions by limiting waste and promoting low-carbon transportation options to visitors.
She says the fight she says is not too dissimilar from the one taken up by the Allied forces 80 years earlier on the very same beach.
“In 1944, the soldiers who came here, they came to fight for peace and freedom and against dictators,” she said.
“What is the main threat to democracy and peace in the world today if not climate change?”
French authorities are expecting one million people to attend D-Day commemorations throughout the region this week. Veterans and school children alike will gather on the shifting sands of Normandy’s beaches to honour both the personal and inherited memories of June 6, 1944, a ritual that may outlive the beaches themselves.
Published at Tue, 04 Jun 2024 13:20:57 +0000
Modi’s party leads in India election but could face stronger opposition than expected
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coalition led in a majority of seats Tuesday in India’s general election, according to early figures, but faced a stronger challenge from the opposition than expected after it pushed back against the leader’s mixed economic record and polarizing politics.
The counting of more than 640 million votes cast over six weeks in the world’s largest democratic exercise was set to take all day.
Modi was still widely expected to be elected to a third five-year term. If Modi wins, it would cement the 73-year-old as one of the country’s most popular and important leaders. It would only be the second time an Indian leader has retained power for a third term after Jawaharlal Nehru, the country’s first prime minister.
After a historic six-week election, vote counting has begun in India, with many expecting a major win for Narendra Modi, giving him a third consecutive term as the country’s prime minister.
Nearly 970 million people — more than 10 per cent of the world’s population — were eligible to vote and turnout averaged 66 per cent, according to official data.
A total of 272 seats are needed for a majority. In 2019, the BJP won 303 seats, up from 282 in 2014 when Modi first came to power.
Modi’s BJP, part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led in 196 constituencies and had won 45, according to the early count. The Congress, part of the INDIA alliance, led in 83 constituencies and had won 15.
Markets drop on early returns
The election commission does not release data on the percentage of votes tallied, and early figures were expected to change.
The “Congress party and other opposition parties have showed tremendous resilience. To have a stronger opposition augers very well for India’s democracy that has taken a hit during Modi’s 10-year rule,” said political analyst Rasheed Kidwai.
Exit polling from the weekend had projected the NDA to win more than 350 seats. Indian markets closed sharply down Tuesday, with benchmark stock indices — the NIFTY 50 and the BSE Sensex – both down by more than five per cent.
In his 10 years in power, Modi has transformed India’s political landscape, bringing Hindu nationalism, once a fringe ideology in India, into the mainstream while leaving the country deeply divided. His supporters see him as a self-made, strong leader who has improved India’s standing in the world. His critics and opponents say his Hindu-first politics have bred intolerance and the economy, the world’s fifth-largest and one of the fastest-growing, has become more unequal.
‘Not just the prime campaigner’
Modi’s popularity has outstripped that of his party’s, and has turned a parliamentary election into one that increasingly resembles a presidential-style campaign. The result is that the BJP relies more and more on Modi’s enduring brand to stay in power, with local politicians receding into the background even in state elections.
“Modi was not just the prime campaigner, but the sole campaigner of this election,” said Yamini Aiyar, a public policy scholar.
The country’s democracy, Modi’s critics say, is faltering under his government, which has increasingly wielded strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents, squeeze independent media and quash dissent. The government has rejected such accusations and says democracy is flourishing.
Economic discontent has simmered under Modi. While stock markets reach record-highs and millionaires multiply, youth unemployment has soared, with only a small portion of Indians benefiting from the boom.
The campaign turned increasingly shrill, as Modi ramped up polarizing rhetoric that targeted Muslims, who make up 14 per cent of the population, a tactic seen to energize his core Hindu majority voters. The opposition INDIA alliance has attacked Modi over his Hindu nationalist politics, and campaigned on issues of joblessness, inflation and inequality.
Extreme heat struck India as voters went to the polls, with temperatures higher than 45 C in some parts of the country. Temperatures were somewhat lower on Tuesday for the counting, but election officials and political parties still took precautions, hauling in large quantities of water and installing outdoor air coolers for people waiting for results outside the buildings where votes were being tallied and party headquarters.
Published at Tue, 04 Jun 2024 11:02:26 +0000
