There’s been a great deal of focus lately on the local effects of the rush by federal and state authorities to build big wind farms near the Vineyard to ameliorate climate change, but very little focus on the local effects of climate change itself.

Except in Oak Bluffs, where there is quiet work underway to prepare for the worst, including sea level rise that is expected to erase beachfront property as it is now known, and the potentially ruinous effects of extreme storms caused by climate change. And it’s all backed by a state grant.

Rising sea level changes, together with changing geology, may be preventing the breach at Norton Point Beach from closing, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer.

Todd Ehret, an oceanographer with the National Ocean Service in Maryland, said he is aware of Edgartown’s problem. He said there is no assurance that the opening at Norton Point Beach will close, though history suggests it.

When it comes to sandy beaches, barrier beaches and inlets, Mr. Ehret said changes are under way around the country.

The irony of Oak Bluffs is that people so loved its beaches, they set about destroying them.

They built so close to the ocean’s edge they had to defend their development with a seawall. And the seawall prevented the natural replenishment of the sand, so the beach eroded away.

Here is a sobering fact: we live on an Island and the sea is rising.

The consensus among coastal scientists is that our children or grandchildren will see a sea level rise of about one metre in this century, an estimate that does not even take into account the rapid rate of melting glaciers. The New York Times reported last week that “the arctic ice cap melted this summer at a shocking pace, disappearing at a far higher rate than predicted even by the most pessimistic experts in global warming.”