We Need to Retreat From the Beach

As ocean waters warm, the Northeast is likely to face more Sandy-like storms. And as sea levels continue to rise, the surges of these future storms will be higher and even more deadly. We can’t stop these powerful storms. But we can reduce the deaths and damage they cause… An Op Ed by Orrin H. Pilkey.

Hurricane Sandy Challenges Short-Term Thinking On Nation’s Coasts

America is an aggressively coastal nation. While accounting for just 13 percent of the nation’s total land mass, coastal counties, including those along the two oceans and the Great Lakes, are home to roughly half the U.S. population, the authors noted, and 60 percent of civilian income…

Venice High Water Floods 70% of City

Venice’s high water, or “acqua alta”, said to be the sixth highest since 1872, flooded 70% of the city and was high enough to make raised wooden platforms for pedestrians float away.

Sea Level Rise Accelerating For US East Coast

This summer the North Carolina Senate passed a bill banning researchers from reporting predicted increases in the rate of sea level rise. But the ocean, unbound by legislation, is rising anyway, and in North Carolina this rise is accelerating, researchers reported…

Storms, Floods, and Droughts

The cycle that transports water around the Earth is intensifying. The ocean contains 96 percent of the free water on Earth, and it acts like a massive water pump. Now, as global temperatures have been rising, there is strong evidence that the ocean water pump has been revving up.

‘Chasing Ice’ Follows James Balog’s Mission To Capture Climate Change

“Use your voice.” Standing before the audience at the New York City premiere of “Chasing Ice” in October, photographer James Balog offered this encouragement to individuals wondering what they can do in the face of global climate change. Chasing Ice is the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of climate change.

Sandy Reminds Us of Coastal Hazards, by Robert Young

Hurricane Sandy will almost certainly join the pantheon of “costliest storms in history.”The impacts of the storm have been felt as far inland as Toronto, Ontario and coastal erosion and flooding affected beaches from South Carolina to southern Massachusetts. There has been massive damage to significant segments of the New Jersey and New York coastal infrastructure.

Is Sandy a Taste of Things to Come?

We should not be surprised. The melting of Arctic ice, rising sea levels, the warming atmosphere and changes to weather patterns are a potent combination likely to produce storms and tidal surges of unprecedented intensity, according to many experts.