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Tag: sea level rise

A decade after #DrownYourTown, I’m still making sea level rise personal.

Posted on May 25, 2023 By Andrew Thaler
Climate change

Ten years ago, I launched a strange little project called Drown Your Town. The premise behind Drown Your Town was simple: I created a little macro in Google Maps that allowed you to superimpose a floodwater layer on top of 3D renders of communities. It was a quick and dirty way to demonstrate sea level rise in an era where those kinds of bespoke models were hard to generate. With #DrownYourTown, anyone, anywhere could simulate sea level rise in their own back yard.

It wasn’t originally going to be an outreach tool. I was writing a science fiction novel about life in a post-climate change world and needed an easy way to visualize places in the stories might look like. The book is still available, on Amazon, along with two other novellas that I wrote, though I warn you, none of them are very good (in my defense, it was the high water mark for self-publishing ebooks and I was still trying to figuring out what my post-academic career would be).

We pushed out the app, launched a successful tumblr page where folks could request sea level rise models, initiated what remains to this day my most successful Twitter campaign of all time, and spent the next year helping people visualize sea level rise in their communities.

We learned a lot about climate change outreach from DrownYourTown.

Read More “A decade after #DrownYourTown, I’m still making sea level rise personal.” »

Vanishing Islands, nuclear leaks, oceans of plastic, and one feisty Beluga. Weekly Salvage: November 18, 2019

Posted on November 18, 2019November 17, 2019 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Transcript available below.

Read More “Vanishing Islands, nuclear leaks, oceans of plastic, and one feisty Beluga. Weekly Salvage: November 18, 2019” »

We Robot, a horrible hagfish massacre, deep, delicious sandwiches, fish slime harvests, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 10, 2018.

Posted on September 10, 2018September 9, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (a call to action)

  • The pending U.S. destruction of Pagan and Tinian islands.

The U.S. is turning a significant portion of Micronesia into live fire and bombing ranges to train Marines. It has plans to completely take over one island for this purpose and has control of two-thirds of another island.

If people in the U.S. mainland understood the military’s plan for Micronesia they might be alarmed. But this is really happening to U.S. citizens living in America’s territories.

(source)

  • We Robot 2019: sign up for one of the best conferences I’ve ever participated in!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • How a team of amateur explorers and an underwater robot laid to rest the ‘Ghost of Baker Lake’.
  • Jane Lubchenco: Science in a Post-Truth World. Hat tip: @EmmaJMcIntosh.
  • ‘Slime eel’ massacre caused by Washington man’s boat accident, lawsuit says.

The Levee (news from LUMCON)

  • Floodwaters are plaguing a lab where scientists study … coastal flooding.

LUMCON’s DeFelice Marine Center, flooded, as seen from a dormitory balcony. (Photo: Courtesy of LUMCON)
LUMCON’s DeFelice Marine Center, flooded, as seen from a dormitory balcony. (Photo: Courtesy of LUMCON)

Read More “We Robot, a horrible hagfish massacre, deep, delicious sandwiches, fish slime harvests, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 10, 2018.” »

Shrinking Islands, shrieking dolphins, little hobbit shrimp, boat knives, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 18, 2018

Posted on June 18, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Foghorn (A Call to Action!)

  • We owe the next generation a better world than we’re giving them. Call your representatives. Demand they stop separating children from their parents at the border. The ACLU has a script to use.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Dispatch from Tangier, the Sinking Island in the Chesapeake.

A combination of storm-driven erosion and sea-level rise, which are both increasing as climate change advances, may soon swallow the island entirely.Photograph by Gordon Campbell / At Altitude Gallery

  • Scientists say they’re confident Chesapeake Bay health is ‘significantly improving’.
  • This is the sound a dolphin might hear if it’s about to become dinner.

https://www.southernfriedscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Normal_call.wav

A normal call. 

https://www.southernfriedscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Irregular_call.wav

The call of a dolphin that would rather not get eaten. 

The Levee (A featured project that emerged from Oceandotcomm)

  • Our Speak Up for the Blue rundown continues!

Read More “Shrinking Islands, shrieking dolphins, little hobbit shrimp, boat knives, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: June 18, 2018” »

Invisible squid and fish with glowing eye spikes: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, April 5th, 2018

Posted on April 5, 2018April 2, 2018 By David Shiffman
Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet):  Follow Louise Chavarie, an Arctic aquatic ecologist, on twitter! A squid-skin inspired invisibility cloak. From Nature News research updates. Underwater noise pollution disturbs fish, too. From CBC News. NOAA publishes list of global fisheries and their risks to marine mammals. By John Cannon, for MongaBay Antarctic ice melting faster than thought. By … Read More “Invisible squid and fish with glowing eye spikes: Thursday Afternoon Dredging, April 5th, 2018” »

Snot Bots for whale health, critical dolphins, lobster considerations, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: January 15, 2018.

Posted on January 15, 2018January 19, 2018 By Andrew Thaler
Uncategorized, Weekly Salvage

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

  • 2018 is almost certainly going to be a record year for FOIA requests. Learn how to do them right and get results thanks to Pro Publica: I’ve Sent Out 1,018 Open Records Requests, and This Is What I’ve Learned.

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • Dr. Michelle LaRue is off to Antarctica and you can follow along through the magic of Twitter. #AccioAntarctica!

Screen cap of linked tweet.

  • The Cinematic Legacy of Jacques Cousteau: The man, the myth, the legend, and his persistent influence on screen.
  • Lake Michigan’s Latest Ice Ball Outbreak Was Incredible. Earther has the best GIF game in town.

Ice balls and slush waves.
Paul May via Storyful.

Read More “Snot Bots for whale health, critical dolphins, lobster considerations, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: January 15, 2018.” »

Thursday Afternoon Dredging: September 14th, 2017

Posted on September 14, 2017September 13, 2017 By David Shiffman
Uncategorized

Cuttings (short and sweet): 

  • Watch this bat ray at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • Follow Marie Auger-Méthé, an Arctic ecologist, on twitter!
  • How sea creatures change color. From Nature Research Highlights.
  • Global fingerprints of sea level rise revealed by satellites. By Rachael Lallensack for Nature News.

 

Read More “Thursday Afternoon Dredging: September 14th, 2017” »

Chasing Genius, aquatic brain blobs, hurricanes, bats, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 4, 2017

Posted on September 4, 2017September 3, 2017 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Fog Horn (A Call to Action)

  • Hurricane Harvey has passed, but its impacts will continue to be felt for years to come. There’s lots of great organizations to donate to, but in the immediate aftermath,it’s often best to donate to local relief programs that already have a ground team in place, rather than national groups that will take weeks to build up their infrastructure. I’m a fan of the Texas Diaper Bank and Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies, both of which serve communities that tend to be particularly vulnerable during natural disasters.
  • Gratuitous self promotion! The OpenCTD and Oceanography for Everyone has been selected as a finalist in National Geographic’s Chasing Genius Challenge! Please help me win the People’s Choice award by voting for the OpenCTD. Visit http://www.natgeochasinggenius.com/video/776, create or sign into your Chasing Genius account, and click the yellow star to vote on my video. Thank you!

Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)

  • It will take months, if not years, to fully understand the impacts of Hurricane Harvey, which already looks to be the costliest storm in US history. These drone videos give you some idea of the sheer scale of the damage. The Washington Post has an interactive map to help visualize what the equivalent deluge would look like around the world: What the Harvey deluge would look like where you live.

Read More “Chasing Genius, aquatic brain blobs, hurricanes, bats, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 4, 2017” »

Tangier, an Island out of Time.

Posted on July 3, 2017July 3, 2017 By Andrew Thaler
Climate change

Tangier Island is sinking.

The last inhabited island on the Virginia side of the Chesapeake Bay covers barely 740 acres of marsh and sand, 1/3 of the area it had when it was first mapped in the 1850s. Tangier suffers from the dual onslaught of erosion and sea level rise. In a good year, the island loses 7 to 9 acres of land, while the westernmost beach recedes 4 meters, exposing homes, gardens, and even graves to the Chesapeake’s unrelenting waves. The town, situated on three sandy ridges, rises to a high point just 1.2 meters above sea level. As salt water incursion and erosion deplete trees and other vegetation, erosion will increase. With a conservative projection of mean sea level rise of 4.4 millimeters per year for the southern Chesapeake Bay, the highest point in town, if it manages to stave off the inexorable erosion, would be completely underwater in 270 years. Tangier will be uninhabitable centuries before that.

Crab shacks in the main harbor. Photo by author.

The Chesapeake Bay and mid-Atlantic coastlines are hot spots for climate change, expecting greater than average sea level rise and more frequent and intense storms. Though the residents of the conservative community on tangier are skeptical, the evidence for human-induced climate change’s impact on the island and the effect of sea level rise is undeniable. Intensifying storms and more dramatic temperature shifts have and will continue to exacerbate erosion. Many residents believe that, had Hurricane Sandy made landfall over the Chesapeake Bay, rather than further north, Tangier would already be largely abandoned. Even the glancing blow from Sandy left significant damage in its wake.

One big storm could spell the end for this 350-year-old community.

Read More “Tangier, an Island out of Time.” »

June is National Ocean Month and the president’s proclamation needs some fact checking.

Posted on June 7, 2017June 7, 2017 By Andrew Thaler
Uncategorized

June is National Ocean Month! Take a moment to step back, breathe, and reflect on what the ocean means to you. Go to the beach. Read Moby Dick. Build an underwater robot. And then go remind you representative how critical science-based ocean policy is to the future of our country. It seems like our elected leaders may need a little refresher on that, since the presidential proclamation announcing National Ocean Month is a bit… inaccurate.

Fortunately, we’ve take the time to graciously provide some constructive corrections. You’re welcome.

Read More “June is National Ocean Month and the president’s proclamation needs some fact checking.” »

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