It has long bothered those fascinated by East Hampton’s past that the small workshops of the Dominy family craftsmen, as well as nearly all of their contents, were no longer easily accessible. That they survived at all is remarkable, even for a community that likes its history. But even as the buildings were slated for demolition in the 1940s, only a few knew they remained of value. Federal historians measured and put details of the construction down on paper, and the Winterthur Museum in Delaware took most of the remaining tools.

Now, East Hampton Village is preparing to return the Dominy clock and woodworking shops to their original location on North Main Street. A replica of the Dominyhouse will be built there as well, as a museum and tribute to early American craftsmanship. East Hampton has long venerated its ancient vine-wrapped houses and windmills. Now it will begin to fully honor the hands that made them.

Unless you are a person who thinks the Apollo Moon landings were faked, perhaps, or that the Earth is flat, it is impossible to argue with NASA’s observations of sea level rise. Satellites tracking the oceans’ surface since 1993 have measured a steady increase, now nearly three and a half inches since Bill Clinton’s first year as president.

Three and a half inches might not sound like much, but in such a short time, the unrelenting rate is extremely alarming for coastal communities. Coastal tide gauges show an even greater rate of rise. As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration explains, sea level rise is caused for the most part by global warming. There are two main factors: higher temperatures that cause seawater to expand and added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers.

Just this week, a new study revealed that the Greenland ice cap is melting about four times faster than previously thought. The volume of water from the loss of approximately 280 billion tons of ice a year, and sometimes as high as 400 billion tons a year, was described by National Geographic as more than enough to cover Florida and New York “hip deep” in meltwater, and then some.

Fortunately, this is not going to happen anytime soon, if only because the world’s oceans are 70 percent greater than the land mass, so the inflow is widely dispersed. But the relentless landward movement of mean high water, though only a few millimeters a year, makes for dramatic changes in places where sea meets land — like Long Island.

What the increase of the past 20 years has meant for coastal erosion depends a lot on location. Nonetheless, anyone who has watched the beaches, particularly on the bay side of Long Island, can report that the destruction of dunes accelerated over that time. One very rough rule of thumb is that for every inch of sea level rise, about a foot of dune or beach is lost. Anecdotally, that appears to be in the ballpark, with houses notably at the brink in Montauk and Amagansett and an intractable problem along the developed Montauk ocean shoreline.

A rising sea has grave implications for waterfront property owners, many of whom bought houses that were built well before the science was understood. It will also challenge local governments, like East Hampton’s, where 1990s-era regulations banning erosion control structures are already being ignored as impractical. 

As individuals, there is little we can do other than reduce our use of fossil fuels and push elected officials to take a firm stand on climate change. Unless far greater action is taken, children born today on Long Island will experience a massive remaking of the landscape from more than two feet of sea level rise by their old age. They will curse our memory if we do not press for everything possible to slow the pace of our rapidly warming planet.

Amid a period of transition following the appointment of Andrea Grover as its director, there has been one charming constant at Guild Hall, the annual Student Art Festival. The program opened last week with a round of performances. A show of paintings, small sculpture, photography, drawing, and collage will be on view Fridays through Mondays, through Feb. 24. Workshops led by educators from Golden Eagle Artist Supply will be held on Saturday.

The exhibition itself is a pleasure, year in and year out. High schoolers produce highly accomplished work, often quite serious in tone and theme. Younger students’ work is a riot of color, pattern, and joy. One of the fascinating things about the whole K-through-12 extravaganza is how different each school’s entries are. Tiny Wainscott’s pieces are always standouts. Springs, as perhaps befits a place where the legendary Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and Willem and Elaine de Kooning painted, are wildly expressive — plus the Springs School’s epic fourth-grade opera is staged each fall. 

Art matters. Educators say over and over again that such creative activities are not simply a luxury for the most well-off districts, they are an essential building block of many of the qualities needed in adulthood for success and satisfaction. These include the hand-eye skills developed in a toddler’s scribbling and even decision-making, as simple as the choice of which color to use where when coloring. As children get a little older, art sparks inventiveness, the kind of thinking increasingly important in our complex, digital present. Cultural awareness is boosted, as they learn about artistic expression down through time and around the world. 

Finally, time and again, studies have demonstrated a powerful link between the arts and other achievement. A report by Americans for the Arts found that children who do nine hours of art a week are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to enter a math or science fair, or win a writing award. And if that were not enough, art is simply fun. Thank you to Guild Hall for always being there for our kids.

Explanations vary about the cause of a storm of dust that flowed on and off in the past week into downtown Amagansett. The known source was a large farm field just beyond the north side of the municipal parking lot. According to the most common account, late rains messed up this year’s harvest on the field. Then the farmer who rents it was delayed in getting a cover crop down and geese gobbled up the seedlings. That may be so, but it does not account for dust having blown off the field in previous years or for similar dust-ups off Long Lane in East Hampton. Notably, much larger fields at Town Lane in Amagansett have not been affected in a similar situation.

Given alarm about past practices on farmland, a great deal of concern is warranted. Substances, both naturally occurring and manmade, have been found on other agricultural properties on the South Fork. Dust itself, even absent potential toxins, is a health risk, particularly for the elderly and young children who might live nearby or attend the school just down the road. 

To what extent a town or county legislative response is possible is unclear. For the most part, matters involving farming fall under the purview of state regulators. Compounding the confusion is a lawsuit filed by members of the Bistrian family, who own the land, seeking to force East Hampton Town to build a road over which a residential development they plan there would be reached. 

Another wrinkle is that the town owns a portion of the dust source, an inverted “L” reaching up like a woodstove chimney smack in the middle of the field, from the municipal parking lot to Windmill Lane. Over the years, town officials tried to buy the land for preservation, but the Bistrians rejected the offers as too low for land that is already divided on paper into about 10 separate buildable lots. The last time the parties were in active negotiation, the family felt the town was low-balling the potential purchase by at least $10 million. 

One solution that many Amagansett residents might not like is for the Bistrians’ residential development plan for the properties to go forward, with the town living up to its obligation to open a road, as promised, to Windmill Lane. If the remaining family owners are unhappy with the town’s offer, as we have noted before, property in the center of the Amagansett business district is not really the wrong location for a handful of new houses. At least lawns would not be likely to dry up and blow dust into houses and shops.

If the Amagansett dust bowl is in any way the result of the long impasse between the property owners and the town, no effort should be spared to force all the parties to a speedy resolution.

Watching the confirmation hearing this week for William Barr as attorney general, we were struck that for the most part the senators stuck to their four-minute limits, often making note of the remaining seconds. This is in particular contrast to regularly held hearings in East Hampton Town Hall, where the three-minute countdown clock for individual speakers is mostly ignored. We have an idea that might help.

It is in the interest of comity for the town board to allow those members of the public who care to address it in person a little latitude on time. However, there are some individuals whose, shall we say, abiding interest in civic engagement compels them to rise and make comments on just about everything that comes up. For this, we have two words: poker chips.

Each person who plans to speak at a meeting of the town board would be handed two or three chips at the outset, redeemable each time they approach the microphone. When one’s chips were used up, he or she would have to find another way to express opinions, for example, in a protest march, or Facebook hoo-rah, or, yes, in a letter to the editor of The Star. Chips, of course, could not be shared with another person nor hoarded for the next meeting.

If the United States Senate can mind the minutes and maintain good order, so too can East Hampton Town Hall, one would think. It’s chips or find money in the budget to buy Town Clerk Carole Brennan a huge metal gong. Now that’s something we really would like to see.

New York State’s junior senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, made public her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination this week in an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” This made national news, but in East Hampton, the announcement seemed to draw little notice. 

Ms. Gillibrand had been a member of the House of Representatives from the upstate district that includes Albany before her appointment as senator in 2009 by Gov. David Paterson. She was little known statewide at that point and that she was to succeed Hillary Clinton, whom President Obama had made secretary of state in his first term, surprised many observers. Time proved that Mr. Paterson was onto something in selecting her; since winning a special election in 2010 to fill out Mrs. Clinton’s term, she has scored landslide wins over her Republican rivals.

Yet 10 years later, Ms. Gillibrand might be as unfamiliar to East End residents as she was when she represented New York’s 20th Congressional District. From her start in the Senate, she has seen her role as that of a national figure, working on such issues as sexual violence within the military and health measures for 9/11 responders. Ms. Gillibrand has made few visits to East Hampton during her time in the Senate, but then, her colleague, Senator Charles Schumer, has not been around much either.

It is fitting perhaps that she chose to make her presidential bid known in a television appearance. At least Mr. Colbert’s show is seen throughout the state.

Montauk residents rose up at Town Hall this week, alarmed that new, long-term planning for the hamlet was about to become law. More than a few of those who spoke complained they had not been told anything about the multiyear project now nearing completion. Ah, the information age.

One of the things governments and newspapers must contend with today is that they can no longer expect everyone to come to them. Rather, information must be walked directly to an increasingly fractured audience, wherever and however each segment of the public finds out about the world beyond their homes. Long gone are the days when the nightly newscasts on the big three TV networks told us how it was. Today, even for the civic-minded, there are too many distractions.

The Star learned this when the Army Corps Montauk sandbag fiasco began some years ago. Despite advance coverage running well past 100,000 words, when the bulldozers began tearing up a natural dune, surprise and outrage followed, expressed largely on social media, particularly via Instagram. We felt flat-footed.

As to the current hamlet work, The Star first started reporting on these studies about three years ago. As early as February of last year, this page lauded a blockbuster concept of moving Montauk’s motels and residences threatened by erosion inland. “This is headline-grabbing stuff,” we declared. Well, perhaps not. Perhaps we, like government officials, should seek additional pathways, or platforms, for bringing attention to the big stuff.

The natural reaction for those who worked for months and years on the hamlet studies, as well as those of us in the news media, is to be peeved when the cries of “Why weren’t we told!” ring out. Yes, it would be better if people were more knowledgeable about what was going on in their neighborhood, hamlet, or town, but ordinary, daily things get in the way. Busy lives, multiple jobs, a desire to step back from national and international problems by binge- watching Netflix all contribute to the gap between what we should be aware of and the extent to which we are in the dark.

A hypothetical document like the Montauk Hamlet Study or any of the others recently completed is less than likely to draw widespread attention until it is completed. Such is the nature of modern life, and perhaps human nature itself. Still, there were elements that The Star and Town Hall could have made a bigger deal about. To be charitable, it is an education for all of us when every new bit of tech or mobile app comes along. But the public, too, has its own obligation to stay informed, at least when they have the time.

If President Trump managed one thing with his televised pitch on Tuesday — ostensibly for his signature border wall — he pushed the Russian election-interference investigation out of the top news for a couple of days. Not surprisingly, his last-ditch effort came at a time when the new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives was getting itself gathered to direct its own attention to the president, his family, and his associates, and the Mueller investigation continued to pile up evidence — and guilty pleas.

Returning to the theme that launched his campaign, Mr. Trump made a number of demonstrably false claims. It was a filibuster of sorts, since even he must understand that a wall between the United States and Mexico would have only a marginal effect on already declining illegal immigration. Major networks and newspapers lost no time on Tuesday night debunking what he said about the numbers, drugs, and the effect on U.S. jobs. Also, even Mr. Trump must have understood that the wall had become a losing issue after his “caravan” mania leading up to the November election was shrugged off by voters in a solid Democratic rout.

This leaves distraction. If there is one thing the president knows it is the power of a shiny object. It is too bad for him that Robert Mueller and the House Democrats are not about to take the bait.

When it comes time to repair the town docks, Ed Michels, East Hampton Town’s chief harbormaster, will order taller pilings. This, as he said in a jaw-dropper of a story here by Christopher Walsh, is because sea level rise has made existing pilings too short during excessively high tides. And just like that, the town and many of its residents will begin to adjust.

Warming of the atmosphere caused by human activity is largely absorbed by the oceans, which, for a variety of reasons including the melting of the polar ice caps, is causing average water levels to rise. Ordinary northeaster storms now regularly flood the bays and harbors, Mr. Michels said. A bulkhead at Three Mile Harbor must be replaced with one much taller. Salt water threatens electricity supply pedestals at boat slips. The bellwether Napeague Meadow Road, which used to flood once or twice a year, now has water on it regularly. Gerard Drive in Springs is in dire need of help after a succession of destructive storms.

In addition to property damage, warmer, wetter winters have contributed to a rise in tick-borne illnesses. Where the oddball allergy to red meat caused by the bite of the lone-star tick was all but unknown, now the number of cases seen at one East Hampton medical practice alone exceeds 700. Other people suffer from far more dangerous illnesses, such as babesiosis and Lyme disease, which were once rare.

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper,” T.S. Eliot said, and in a sense, his doomsday poem predicted the incremental changes we now see. It is as simple as storm tides’ exceeding their usual bounds and as complex as doing something to end it.

East Hampton Town has begun soliciting proposals from organizations that seek to occupy the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons charter school off Stephen Hand’s Path in East Hampton, but at the outset, no consensus on how the building should be used has emerged. Our impression is that town officials would prefer to be landlords as opposed to program managers there, which is understandable but might not be in the public’s best interest.

Considering the track record of public spaces in East Hampton, the idea of the town’s partnering with a private group is seductive. The so-called Arena on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett and the RECenter in East Hampton Village ran into a host of challenges before they were handed off to outside organizations. Now, both are used well, if somehow less than the community centers initially envisioned. The East Hampton Town Parks and Recreation Department already has a full plate; adding another job at the C.D.C.H. could have implications for staff and budget.

Discussion of the way forward on Stephen Hand’s Path has been less than conclusive, along the lines of “We’ve got this thing. Now what are we going to do with it?” This seems risky. The town has a terrific opportunity to build something that truly meets a public need. Punting the decision to outside suitors may not produce the best result, the benefits of cost-saving not necessarily outweighing the potential. The public must first decide what it wants the former C.D.C.H. to be. The rest should follow.