2022. 7. 27. 08:05ㆍ■ 국제/CANADA
This Lighthouse Airbnb provides a firsthand look at coastal erosion - The Weather Network
This Lighthouse Airbnb provides a firsthand look at coastal erosion - The Weather Network
Greg Norton saved a lighthouse that was falling off an embankment on his property due to coastal erosion and converted it into an Airbnb.
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Annandale Rear Range Light
222 Nortons Rd, Cardigan, PE C0A 1G0
http://www.annandalelighthouseinc.com/
The Annandale Range Lights are a set of range lights on the east coast of Prince Edward Island, Canada. The range was established in 1898 but is now inactive. The original front range light was relocated in 1990, and was replaced by a new building of a similar design that now operates as a sector light.[1] The lights are white pyramid-shaped structures of different heights, each with a red vertical stripe.
LocationCoordinatesTowerConstructedShapeMarkingsLightDeactivatedRange| Prince Edward Island Canada |
| 46°15′33.1″N 62°25′19.9″W |
| 1898 |
| square pyramidal tower |
| white tower with red vertical stripes |
| 1925 |
| 400 metres |
THIS LIGHTHOUSE AIRBNB PROVIDES A FIRSTHAND LOOK AT COASTAL EROSION
Published on Jul. 25, 2022, 6:01 AM
Nathan Coleman
Reporter, Atlantic Canada
Greg Norton saved a lighthouse that was falling off an embankment on his property due to coastal erosion and converted it into an Airbnb.
His ancestors maintained the Annandale lighthouse ever since it was built in 1901. Back then, however, it was much closer to the water.
The warming climate has increased the rate of erosion along P.E.I.'s shorelines, making lighthouses particularly vulnerable. In Norton’s case, the family lighthouse was literally teetering on the edge of collapse.
Determined to not let the piece of family and local history tumble into the sea, he worked to save it.
"It was just about ready to fall over with erosion and we pulled it back 100 feet," Norton told The Weather Network.
Inside the lighthouse that has been in Greg Norton's family for generations. (Nathan Coleman)
Norton has now converted the lighthouse into an Airbnb in an effort to raise funds to cover the costs of keeping it in the community.
But it’s also a stark reminder of the impacts a warming world is having on our lived environments.
Norton remembers his grandfather helping clear a path for horses to cross the ice on the Boughton River, which sits just adjacent to the lighthouse, back in the Decembers of his childhood. The winters he sees how are much different.
"What's been going on recently with climate change is we don't get river ice,” said Norton.
The lighthouse Airbnb will raise funds to cover the costs of keeping it in the community. (Nathan Coleman)
“So when I was younger, we used to always get ice here — this river would be iced up in December and would stay frozen until April. Now what we have is this river doesn't freeze until the end of January, sometimes into February. So when you get the big storms, the wave action will chew at the shore more than it did," Norton continued.
Adam Fenech, with the University of Prince Edward Island's climate lab, says the lack of sea ice is a threat especially damaging to the province's North Shore.
"It acted as a buffer or defense against the strong winter storms that we get," explained Fenech.
Back in 2019, UPEI reported that the Island was losing 20-40 centimetres annually to erosion in many locations, with some places seeing over a metre disappearing into the ocean.
A look inside the new Airbnb located in Annandale, N.S. (Nathan Coleman)
The Weather Network was given the opportunity to be the lighthouse Airbnb's first occupant. See the full story in the video above.