Last Chance Beach, Battling Erosion in Barbados

Around Barbados, the most serious threat to the beaches is the loss of coral reefs through nearshore pollution, primarily caused by domestic sewage, and physical clearing. As the reefs die, they lose their ability to reduce the energy and erosive force of incoming waves.

Reefs at Risk Report, Revisited: A Wakeup Call to Protect Coral

The new Reefs at Risk Revisited report is out, 13 years after the original Reefs at Risk, which was the first global assessment of the threats to Earth’s coral reefs and painted an alarming picture of their future. Today’s edition is even less rosy: three-quarters of the world’s coral reefs are at risk due to overfishing, pollution, climate change and other factors.

Testing the Limits of Where Humans Can Live

Understanding what made residents stay and how they survived could inform how we adapt to modern vulnerabilities, including climate change.The findings also have implications for how we rebound from contemporary catastrophes, such as the Indonesian tsunami in 2004, hurricanes Katrina and Rita and last year’s earthquake in Haiti.