August 31st, 2012
Local sea level rise has increased so much since the Key West Airport was built, that during the “Super Moon” super high tide in May 2012 it was flooded with seawater. Sea planes would have been more appropriate than jet planes during that day. Floridians are grappling with how to prepare their schools, roads, homes and airports to withstand sea level rise, accelerated by climate change.
August 2nd, 2012
It’s official: North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue will join the state’s legislature today in burying a $5 million study estimating sea level rise off the North Carolina coast due to global warming. Her pusillanimous move follows months of public controversy that have subjected the state to much ridicule, and for good reason. The sordid tale shows the influence that developers and other special interests can have on the way that states and communities are able to use science to adapt to climate change and protect the public. Read More
August 1st, 2012
Today members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) were presented with a figure illustrating that the Gulf Coast and U.S. East Coast experienced the fastest pace of sea level rise compared to nearly all the rest of the coasts around the world from 1955 to 2003. I was struck by the vigorous discussion around the graphs, which were presented by my colleague Dr. James McCarthy and others before a full committee hearing entitled “Update on the Latest Climate Change Science and Local Adaptation Measures.”
Read More
July 13th, 2012
In our fight for a better quality of life for all Americans, we need storytellers. We need to reach people through personal anecdotes, through editorial cartoons, through songs. We need to arm people with narratives of what is possible, so that together we may be successful in spurning the cynicism that supports the status quo and disillusions the disempowered. And few have done this better than the man who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow: songwriter and American folk hero Woody Guthrie.
But what do Woody’s writings have to do with science? As it turns out, plenty. Read More
© 2013
