Study: Rising Seas Slowed by Increasing Water on Land
New measurements from a NASA satellite have allowed researchers to identify and quantify, for the first time, how climate-driven increases of liquid water storage on land have temporarily slowed the rate of sea level rise by about 20 percent.
Grain by Grain, Truck by Truck: How Myanmar Is Losing its Beaches
Around every corner waits a new truck. Workers dig their shovels into the powdery white sand of Myanmar’s Ngapali beach, the country’s top seaside destination, and lift it onto the truck beds. Vast craters dot the coastline.
Sea-level rise ‘could last twice as long as human history’
Huge sea-level rises caused by climate change will last far longer than the entire history of human civilisation to date, according to new research, unless the brief window of opportunity of the next few decades is used to cut carbon emissions drastically.
Mavericks Competition: Why Surf Spot Has Monster Waves
Right now, the world’s best surfers are riding the monster waves at Titans of Mavericks, an elite surf competition that pits big-wave riders against the monster swells at a Northern California Beach. Waves this year were slated to reach 50 feet (15 meters) tall, with winds of 46 to 75 mph (40 to 65 knots). But just why do the waves get so big at this particular time and spot?
Window to reduce carbon emissions is small, scientists say
At the rate humans are emitting carbon into the atmosphere, Earth may suffer irreparable damage that could last tens of thousands of years, according to a new analysis published this week.
Toxic chemicals found in beached pilot whales in Scotland
Scientists have found clear evidence that whales are absorbing high levels of toxic heavy metals, with cadmium found in the brains of pilot whales which washed up in Scotland.
A Judicial Affirmation of the Public’s Common Law Right to Use All of North Carolina’s Dry-sand Beaches
In Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle, Nov. 17, 2015, the North Carolina Court of Appeals unqualifiedly held that the “ocean beaches of North Carolina … are subject to public trust rights.” Until this decision, no North Carolina court opinion directly addressed the question of whether all dry-sand beaches of the State were, in fact, open to public use.
Penang’s land reclamation may harm coastal communities, Malaysia
Environmental NGO says such projects could also harm the environment and cause erosion, as well as loss of coastal resources.
Californians Fight Over Whether Coast Should Be Rugged or Refined
The California Coastal Commission, created 45 years ago, has been one of the most powerful governmental agencies in the nation, with sweeping powers to determine what gets built, or does not get built, on the 1,100 miles of cliffs, mountains and beaches along the Pacific Ocean. It has mediated the often clashing agendas of two of the most influential forces that help to define this state: environmentalism and the drive for growth.