One day last month close to five inches of rain fell on Martha’s Vineyard. In Chilmark alone it caused a five-foot wide, four-foot deep sinkhole on State Road, the collapse of a two culverts and the dirt road to Lucy Vincent Beach, the collapse of an old granite bridge and the closure of South Road near the Allen Farm due to an impassable puddle.

Suddenly it’s flooding everywhere, all over the world — and it’s no fluke.

Climate change is complicated; sea level rise is not. We live on an Island — a glorified sandbar — and the sea is closing in on us. It is rising much faster than anticipated. In the last century sea level rose by about a foot. In this century, due to human-induced global warming, it is expected to rise at least five feet, according to a new report by the international Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program.

For the first time in living memory, Wasque Point on Chappaquiddick, a famed spot where riptides attract thousands of saltwater fishermen each year, will be inaccessible for much of the summer. The reason is the ferocious erosion now eating away huge chunks of the southeastern corner of Chappaquiddick at a rapid rate. The once-wide sandy beach at Wasque Point has been replaced by 20 to 28-foot sheer cliffs, with truckloads of uprooted pine and oak trees stuck in the crashing surf at their base.