Dead Sea Protection Bill Pushed Ahead Of New 7 Wonders Competition

The Dead Sea is one of the 28 finalists in the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition, but Israeli environmentalists hope the government won’t be content with the mere honor, and will instead actually save the sea by supporting a bill to regulate the pumping of water from its sources and construction of infrastructure on its beaches.

Floods show what lies ahead for sinking Bangkok

The Thai capital, built on swampland, is slowly sinking and the floods currently besieging Bangkok could be merely a foretaste of a grim future as sea level are forecasted to rise by 19 to 29 centimeters by 2050 as a result of global warming, experts say.

Coastal Vegetation Could Blunt Tsunami’s Deadly Impact

A study estimates that the death toll of the devastating 2004 tsunami along Indonesia’s West Aceh coast would have been smaller had there been enough coastal vegetation to dull the blow and shield the coastal settlements from the shoreline.

Huge Bering Sea Storm Bears Down On Alaska’s West Coast

A giant Pacific storm headed toward Alaska’s western coast has the potential to cause major coastal flooding, serious beach erosion, heavy snowfall and widespread damage, and could become “one of the worst on record” for the region, the National Weather Service said in an alert.

Japan Revives a Sea Barrier That Failed to Hold

When a giant tsunami hit Japan’s northeast on March 11, the three decades work and nearly $1.6 billion Kamaishi’s great tsunami breakwater, largely crumpled under the first 30-foot-high wave, leaving Kamaishi defenseless. Waves deflected from the breakwater are also strongly suspected of having contributed to the 60-foot waves that engulfed communities north of it…

Flash Forward 100 Years: Climate Change Scenarios in California’s Bay-Delta

Scientists investigated how California’s interconnected San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Bay-Delta system) is expected to change from 2010 to 2099 in response to both fast and moderate climate warming scenarios. Results indicate that this area will feel impacts of global climate change in the next century with shifts in its biological communities, rising sea level, and modified water supplies.