by J.E. Lacouture

30

Thoughts of Nantucket from 58,000 Feet

by J. E. Lacouture

RECENTLY WE FLEW BACK from London to Washington on the Concorde - on reflection, a rather spectacular 3 3/4 hour trip. Since I had been a pilot for years it was only natural that during the trip I would wander up into the pilot's compartment. The entire nose of the Concorde which includes the pilot's compartment is made of a very durable plexiglass and affords a magnificent view in all directions.

It just so happened that I arrived there as the Concorde at 58,000 feet, Mach 1.85 was passing just south of Nantucket. It was a crystal clear day and there lay Nantucket about the size of a twisted hankerchief with Cape Cod just to the north about the size of a person's arm bent at the elbow. The great point of Nantucket looked like a miniature copy of the lower Cape from Chatham to Provincetown. It was a breath taking and meaningful sight to me who had roots in both places.

I returned to my seat to take my wife up to see the spectacular view and then spent the short time remaining on our flight thinking about Nantucket. Memories in later life take on a cherished patina as one reflects on things past. I can remember Nantucket when there were only comparatively few cars and even fewer airplanes, when the beaches were uncrowded and clean as was the water, when one could lay on the beaches without worrying about being run over by a jeep, when the moors were pristine and undotted by houses, where there were no housing developments such as Tristram's Landing, Tom Nevers, Dionis and Surfside to spoil the priceless open lands of old.

All the changes mentioned above have brought Nantucket into the modern world so alien to the Nantucket of old. The pressures of population growth and demand are irreversible changing one of the few remnants of rural environmental splendor left along the East Coast of the United States. Again I paused to think of the unbridled growth of Nantucket today with its traffic problems, the worries of adequate water supplies, power supplies, sewage disposal, etc. I thought of men like Beinecke and Larsen and institutions like the Nantucket Historical Trust and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation who have tried so hard to stem unbridled growth especially of the Coney Island kind and who have attempted to preserve the historic homes of Nantucket and some of Nantucket's priceless open lands for generations of the future.

I then mused abit on the future of Nantucket. At this time I could only feel sorry for my grandchildren and great grandchildren. I feel certain that man's scientific drive, economic cupidity and unwillingness to correct and counteract destructive environmental acts will bring unprecedented changes to Nantucket fifty years from now.

THOUGHTS OF NANTUCKET 31

To begin with, recent studies of the alarming destruction of the ozone layers over the Antarctic continent caused mostly by chloroflurocarbons from spray cans and refrigeration and airconditioning units could mean that in the not too distant future humans could not venture forth on the world's beaches unless completely covered, including face masks, unless they were willing to risk almost certain skin cancer. To attempt to obtain a worldwide ban against systems using chloroflurocarbons in timely fashion to avert this gloomy prediction seems most unlikely.

Secondly as automobiles, factories, home heating and the ever accelerated burning of the world's tropical rain forests continue to pour carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, it is bound to increase the carbon dioxide content of our atmosphere significantly which in turn will significantly raise global temperatures. (The Greenhouse Effect). There is no way to stop the adverse effect or even slow it down, so possibly Nantucket should start planning now for the effects it will have on the Island.

With the present state of knowledge most scientists who have studied the problem predict a sea level rise from melting polar ice caps by the year 2050 of from one to 25 feet. Assuming a middle figure Great Point, Brant Point, Coatue, most of Madaket and the low lying areas on the South Shore of the Island, Cod Fish Park and Low Beach in Sconset and much of the lower town of Nantucket would be under water. In my musing I could only wonder if possibly for the lower town of Nantucket and Brant Point areas dikes could be built to protect them from this inevitable rise of the ocean's water levels. I even worried a bit about my waterfront home at Sconset even though it is well back from the Southbank.

On that unhappy note we were getting ready to land at Dulles, so I ceased my musing and reflected that I was glad I had belonged to the generation which had seen Nantucket before the developers and population growth had so drastically changed it, and that my children had had the opportunity to grow up in the innocent, unhurried and happy times of the Nantucket of thirty years ago.

At the Bend of New Mill Street One Hundred Years Ago