The Destruction of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Gary Griggs | Op-Ed

Global temperatures in 2024 were above the 1991-2020 average (red) across most of the planet. Yearly temperatures compared to the 20th-century average (bar chart) show that it has been 48 years since Earth had a cooler-than-average year (Courtesy of NOAA Climate.gov, based on data from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information).

“Move fast and break things” is a catchphrase popularized by Mark Zuckerberg, suggesting that rapid innovation and progress are achieved by embracing experimentation and accepting that mistakes and failures are inevitable…While this approach may have benefits in the tech world, it is no way to run a nation, yet, sadly, this is what we are now experiencing in Washington, D.C., with the administration’s plans underway now to essentially destroy the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Caspian Sea’s rapid decline threatens endangered seals, coastal communities and industry, study warns – Physics.org

The northern shore of the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan captured from "Aeroflot" A350-900 flight from Sochi (AER) to Moscow (SVO), altitude 11,5 km or 7,1 miles over earth (by Sergey Tchernyakov CC BY-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

Water levels in the Caspian Sea—the world’s largest landlocked water body—are getting lower, as hotter temperatures cause more water to evaporate than is flowing in. Even if global warming is limited to below 2°C, it is likely that the level of the Caspian Sea will decline by 5 to 10 m, but if temperatures rise further, water levels could drop by as much as 21 m by 2100..

Colombia’s Receding Coastline – Jacobin

View of the Atrato River Delta, Colombia, March 27, 2007 (Courtesy of NASA - taken by an Expedition 14 crewmember onboard the International Space Station shows the Atrato River Delta and Gulf of Urabá in Colombia CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flickr).

In Colombia, coastal erosion caused by a combination of climate change and environmentally destructive industrial agriculture is displacing the country’s poorest citizens. But the scale of the disaster means that it has no easy solutions…

They lost their coastal Malibu homes to fire. But should they rebuild along a rising sea? – the Los Angeles Times

Coastal homes in Southern California devastated by the 2025 Palisades Fire (Courtesy of CAL FIRE_Official CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flickr).

“I think we suffer from what I call a short disaster memory. We want to get in there and build and rebuild as fast as we can,” said Gary Griggs, a UC Santa Cruz oceanographer and coastal geologist who wrote “California Catastrophes: The Natural Disaster History of the Golden State.” But the impermanence of coastal construction ”is not something most people are interested in hearing about.”…