A sea change on managed retreat? – CommonWealth Journal

Plum Island, Merrimack River entrance, 40 minutes after high tide, January 23, 2023 (courtesy of Massachusetts the Office of Coastal Management via mycoast.org/ma).

As waters rise, coastal residents are increasingly facing a difficult choice: try to relocate in a difficult housing market and take losses on their homes, or get comfortable with a future where there may be multiple feet of water in their living rooms…

Hurricane Idalia’s Explosive Power Comes from Abnormally Hot Oceans – the New Yorker

Sunset at South Jetty after Hurricane Idalia (by Rudy Wilms CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

Of all the astonishing facts about our blithe remaking of the world’s climate system, the most astonishing might be this: if oceans didn’t cover seventy per cent of our planet, we would have increased the average temperature to about a hundred and twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit. That’s because those oceans have absorbed something like ninety-three per cent of the extra heat trapped by the greenhouse effect and our burning of fossil fuels…

How sea level rise made Idalia’s storm surge worse – the Washington Post

Geo Color imagery of post-tropical Cyclone Idalia (courtesy of NOAA, public domain).

In mid-November 2021, a great storm begins brewing in the central Pacific Ocean north of Hawai‘i. Especially warm water, heated by the sun, steams off the sea surface and funnels into the sky.

A tendril of this floating moisture sweeps eastward across the ocean. It rides the winds for a day until it reaches the coasts of British Columbia and Washington State. There, the storm hits air turbulence, which pushes it into position—straight over British Columbia’s Fraser River valley….

Luxury California resort accused of restricting public beach access – SFGATE

San Diego - Paradise Point Resort, Mission Bay (by K M CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

A California Coastal Commission report reviewed by SFGATE accuses Paradise Point Resort of numerous violations that “impede public use of the area and reinforce the impression that the entire area was private…” Alleged violations included the failure to put up a single “public access” sign, blocking public pathways to the beach, and the installation of a kiosk and security guard at the primary parking entrance. Another allegation states that the resort built or placed uncovered dumpsters and an event tent on public pathways and parking spots.