A Massachusetts town spent $600K on shore protection. A winter storm washed it away days later – the Washington Post
A Massachusetts beach community is scrambling after a weekend storm washed away $600,000 in sand that was trucked in to protect homes, roads and other infrastructure…
The East Coast Is Sinking | Interactive – the New York Times
New satellite-based research reveals how land along the coast is slumping into the ocean, compounding the danger from global sea level rise.
A major culprit: overpumping of groundwater.
Fire Blanketed Lahaina in Toxic Debris. Where Can They Put It? – the New York Times
Crews are sending thousands of truckloads of debris to a temporary disposal site (in Olowalu)..The coast of Olowalu is popular with snorkelers and filled with abundant sea life. In 2017, the coral reef offshore became a focal point for protection by the nonprofit Mission Blue, which advocates to protect the ocean. The organization said the reef acts as a sort of nursery to enhance reefs on other islands nearby. It also supports a large population of manta rays. “It’s environmentally precious,” said Tom Gruber, an adviser to Mission Blue. “It’s like Yosemite. You wouldn’t put a toxic waste dump upstream of Yosemite…”
Six Spongy Sea Creatures Suggest Warming Might Be Worse Than Thought – the New York Times
Research on a long-lived but rarely seen species in the Caribbean is helping scientists piece together a revised history of climate change…
Here’s How the Next Two Atmospheric Rivers Will Affect California – the New York Times
A “Pineapple Express” hitting California through Thursday will set the stage for another week of unsettled weather across the state…
As Development Alters Greek Islands’ Nature and Culture, Locals Push Back – the New York Times
As a proliferation of pools threatens some water supplies and housing costs skyrocket, people of the Cycladic islands say the Aegean islands’ character is being lost to real-estate homogenization…“It’s very easy to talk about sustainable development, but all they actually do is approve new investments,” said Ioannis Spilanis, a former general secretary for island policy at Greece’s shipping ministry and now head of the Aegean Sustainable Tourism Observatory…
The Prescience of Octavia Butler
The effects of climate change are reshaping America. Those with sufficient resources retreat inside protected communities. Those with even greater resources finance an exploratory Mars mission, presumably in an attempt to one day escape Earth’s destabilization. In the political realm, a populist presidential candidate denounces claims made by scientists, promising the electorate that he’s going to “return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century.” This is life in 2024…Or at least it’s life in 2024 as imagined by the writer Octavia Butler 31 years ago…
The Visions of Octavia Butler | Interactive – the New York Times
(Octavia) Butler was not a climate scientist, a political pundit, or a Silicon Valley technologist…Somehow she knew this time would come. The smoke-choked air from fire gone wild, the cresting rivers and rising seas, the sweltering heat and receding lakes, the melting away of civil society and political stability, the light-year leaps in artificial intelligence—(she) foresaw them all…
Finding a Way Back to ‘Perfect Beach’ – the New York Times
On the northern coast of Puerto Rico — about an hour’s drive west of San Juan, off a wisp of a road threaded through dense green foliage — there exists a long, empty beach that has haunted my dreams for years. On Google Maps, it appears as Punta Caracoles Beach, but I have always thought of it as Perfect Beach…