NOAA’s “Picture Climate Change” Student Photo Contest

NOAA Logo (by Badseed, Public domain, via Wikimedia).

Show NOAA how climate change is impacting your community

To enhance our understanding of the diverse ways climate change impacts people and places around the United States, NOAA is asking students in grades 5 through 12 for photo submissions showcasing what climate change means to you…

On the Edge of Retreat (multimedia feature) – the Washington Post

Hog Island Wildlife Management Area in Surry County, Virginia. 2018 (by Chesapeake Bay Program CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flickr).

A century ago, about 250 people lived on Hog Island, a seven-mile expanse off the Virginia coast. They raised livestock and gathered oysters. They lived in a town called Broadwater, worked at the lighthouse and Coast Guard station, and danced at night in a social hall called the Red Onion.

But that was back when there was still soil beneath their feet…

Clamshells Face the Acid Test – Hakai Magazine

Clam Shells (by Lindsey B. CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr).

As acidification threatens shellfish along North America’s Pacific Coast, Indigenous sea gardens offer solutions.   

It’s low tide in Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco, California, and Hannah Hensel is squishing through thick mud, on the hunt for clams. The hinged mollusks are everywhere, burrowed into the sediment, filtering seawater to feed on plankton. But Hensel isn’t looking for living bivalves—she’s searching the mudflat for the shells of dead clams…

Science Denial Has Impacts

Speech by the NATO Secretary General at a Joint Meeting of the US House of Representatives and Senate 2019 (by NATO CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr)

Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, made a wonderful statement some time ago, that is worth sharing – “The good thing about science is that it’s true, whether or not you believe it”. Science is really not an option. Whether biology, chemistry, physics, oceanography, geology or astronomy, scientists in these disciplines over centuries of research, conducting experiments, collecting evidence, and testing and examining their ideas have gradually developed an understanding of how the Earth and its life works. And much of our everyday lives depends on the application of that science…

Extreme weather becoming a factor in where Americans choose to live – Fox Weather

Ocean front property for sale sign south of Yachats, Oregon (by Rick Obst CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).

A report shows that over 60% of Americans that are planning to move in the next year are reluctant to move to areas with natural disaster-prone areas or areas that experience extreme weather and sea level rise.

“All of these costs associated with climate change are actually becoming a real drag on not only our economy but particular areas that are, let’s say, high-risk areas,” Jesse Keenan, professor of sustainable real estate at Tulane University told FOX Weather. 

Teaching Children About Climate Change – the New York Times

Cover Art: THE COQUÍES STILL SING: A Story of Home, Hope, and Rebuilding, illustration by Krystal Quiles (courtesy of macmilllan books).

Two new picture books and a novel for young readers place children at the center of climate calamity. Fittingly, they are stories of homes under threat; home, after all, is the thing climate change stalks, be it a house, a community or a livable planet. Each book offers its own lessons on how to cope with life under the monster we’ve created. The novel even shows how kids can help slay it…

Six Art Installations Making Sea Level Rise Visible – Metropolis

Waterlicht Museumplein Amsterdam by Daan Roosegaarde (Studio Roosegaarde CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flickr).

Around the globe, artists are reckoning with climate change and finding new ways to render the impacts of rising seas legible…

“Quite often on the news you’ll see these graphs showing sea level rise and flooding levels, and it can be quite hard to grasp the magnitude of it all,” says architect Andre Kong. “With something that devastating, how can you understand what it actually looks like and what it actually means?