Category Archives: coastal communities

Discordant harmonies in views of natural systems by The Sierra Club and others

This essay was first publish at the blog of the Green Congregation Committee, First Parish in Needham, on the Parish Realm Web site and communications board. The views obviously are those only of its author, not of First Parish or … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, Association to Preserve Cape Cod, biology, Buckminster Fuller, Carl Safina, civilization, coastal communities, conservation, Daniel B Botkin, discordant harmonies, ecological disruption, ecological services, Ecological Society of America, ecology, environment, field biology, field science, First Parish in Needham, forest fires, fragmentation of ecosystems, Gaylord Nelson, George Sugihara, invasive species, Lotka-Volterra systems, marine biology, Nature's Trust, Peter del Tredici, philosophy of science, population biology, population dynamics, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, riverine flooding, shorelines, stream flow, sustainability, sustainable landscaping, unreason, water, wishful environmentalism | Tagged | Leave a comment

Wake Up

Posted in #youthvgov, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, bridge to somewhere, Buckminster Fuller, climate activism, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate grief, climate justice, climate mitigation, climate nightmares, climate policy, climate science, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, ecocapitalism, ecological disruption, ecological services, Ecology Action, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, ecopragmatist, fossil fuel divestment, global warming, Greta Thunberg, Humans have a lot to answer for, investment in wind and solar energy, James Hansen, John Holdren, Joseph Schumpeter, Juliana v United States, keep fossil fuels in ground, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, solar revolution, Talk Solar, the energy of the people, the green century, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Isaias and Oak Island, NC

h/t to Professor Rob Young, Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, via LinkedIn.

Posted in coastal communities, coastal investment risks, coasts, hurricanes, Robert Young, shorelines | Leave a comment

Wanna buy some cheap land?

Hat tip to the Financial Times.

Posted in coastal communities, coastal investment risks, coasts, risk, sea level rise | Leave a comment

“Microplastics in the Ocean: Emergency or Exaggeration?” (Morss Colloquium, WHOI)

Update, 2019-10-28 00:34 ET I have compiled notes from the talks above, and from the audience Q&A and documented these in a Google Jam here.

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, bag bans, Claire Galkowski, coastal communities, coasts, diffusion processes, microbiomes, microplastics, NOAA, oceanic eddies, oceanography, oceans, perceptions, phytoplankton, plastics, pollution, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, science, science education, statistical ecology, WHOI, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | Leave a comment

Where we be : 2019 is hot

Posted in AMETSOC, an ignorant American public, an uncaring American public, Anthropocene, atmosphere, bridge to nowhere, bridge to somewhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, climate mitigation, climate policy, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, corporate citizenship, corporate responsibility, corporate supply chains, corporations, Cult of Carbon, destructive economic development, development as anti-ecology, ecological disruption, ecological services, ecology, ecomodernism, ecopragmatism, emissions, environment, fossil fuel divestment, fragmentation of ecosystems, global blinding, global warming, greenhouse gases, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene | Leave a comment

CBRA is awesome!

Hat tip to Professor Rob Young and Audubon for a great newsfilm.

Posted in Anthropocene, Association to Preserve Cape Cod, being carbon dioxide, bridge to somewhere, Cape Cod, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, catastrophe modeling, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, coasts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, destructive economic development, ecological disruption, ecomodernism, economic trade, ecopragmatism, flooding, floods, fossil fuels, global warming, greenhouse gases, home resale values, Humans have a lot to answer for, hurricanes, hydrology, Hyper Anthropocene, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, life cycle sustainability analysis, living shorelines, ocean warming, Robert Young, science, science education, stream flow, sustainable landscaping, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon, unreason, UU, UU Mass Action, UU Ministry for Earth, UU Needham, Wally Broecker, wishful environmentalism, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, zero carbon, ``The tide is risin'/And so are we'' | Leave a comment

Hypothetical toxins from plastics? Perhaps actual sources of toxins should be concerns …

… Like ocean heat-induced red tide and blue green algae (cyanobacteria). The problem of things like cyanotoxins is particularly bad in Florida, but Massachusetts Buzzards Bay has seen its share of problems. Quoting: Blue-green algae are laden with microcystins that … Continue reading

Posted in algal blooms, Anthropocene, blue-green algae, BMAA, climate, climate change, climate disruption, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, coasts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, cyanobacteria, global warming, harmful algae, Hyper Anthropocene, living shorelines, marine biology, marine debris, ocean warming, oceans, pollution, red tide | Leave a comment

“Rising seas erode $15.8 billion in home value from Maine to Mississippi”

From the First Street Foundation‘s press release, with selected figures below. This is based upon the methods described in: S. A. McAlpine, J. R. Porter, “Estimating recent local impacts of Sea-Level Rise on current real-estate losses: A housing market case … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, catastrophe modeling, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, EBC-NE, flooding, floods, Hyper Anthropocene, risk, riverine flooding | Leave a comment

“What’s new with recycling”

South Shore Recycling Cooperative Director Claire Galkowski, spoke in Norwell, at the South Shore Natural Science Center, a couple of weeks ago:

Posted in Amory Lovins, Anthropocene, biofuels, Carbon Cycle, Claire Galkowski, coastal communities, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, EBC-NE, ecomodernism, ecopragmatist, education, extended producer responsibility, extended supply chains, green tech, greenhouse gases, local self reliance, Massachusetts, microplastics, paper, plastics, public health, quantitative ecology, recycling, science, solid waste, South Shore Recycling Cooperative, sustainability | Tagged | 1 Comment

Wake up, Massachusetts! Especially, Green Massachusetts!

I’ve been looking over the set of bills proposed for the current Massachusetts legislative session. There are more of them, all dealing with aspects of greening energy supply and transport. And Governor Baker’s S.10 is very welcome. (By the way, … Continue reading

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, Anthropocene, Cape Wind, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, coastal communities, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, decentralized energy, electric vehicles, electrical energy storage, electricity markets, emissions, fossil fuels, global warming, Governor Charlie Baker, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, investment in wind and solar energy, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, sea level rise, seawalls, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, the value of financial assets, wind energy, wind power, wishful environmentalism, zero carbon | Leave a comment

50,000+ golf balls, along a coast

KQED carried a story about free diver and 16 y.o. Alex Weber who discovered not only a new source of plastic pollution, but another testament to the casual, careless sloppiness of people. And Ms Weber has converted it into a … Continue reading

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, an uncaring American public, coastal communities, coasts, consumption, ecological disruption, Ecological Society of America, ethics, field research, Florida, Humans have a lot to answer for, marine debris, oceans, plastics, pollution, science, sustainability, sustainable landscaping | Tagged | Leave a comment

climate model democracy

“One of the most interesting things about the MIP ensembles is that the mean of all the models generally has higher skill than any individual model.” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all models are created equal, that … Continue reading

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, attribution, Bayesian model averaging, Bloomberg, citizen science, climate, climate business, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, Climate Lab Book, climate models, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, complex systems, differential equations, disruption, dynamic linear models, dynamical systems, ecology, emergent organization, ensemble methods, ensemble models, ensembles, Eric Rignot, evidence, fear uncertainty and doubt, FEMA, forecasting, free flow of labor, global warming, greenhouse gases, greenwashing, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, Jennifer Francis, Joe Romm, Kevin Anderson, Lévy flights, LBNL, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, liberal climate deniers, mathematics, mathematics education, model-free forecasting, multivariate adaptive regression splines, National Center for Atmospheric Research, obfuscating data, oceanography, open source scientific software, optimization, perceptrons, philosophy of science, phytoplankton | Leave a comment

Professor Tony Seba, of late

I love it. Professor Tony Seba, Stanford, 1 week ago. It means anyone who continues to invest in or support the fossil fuels hegemony will be fundamentally disappointed by the markets. And it serves them right. By efficiency, or momentum, … Continue reading

Posted in American Statistical Association, anti-intellectualism, anti-science, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Buckminster Fuller, Carbon Tax, Carbon Worshipers, causation, central banks, children as political casualties, citizen science, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate business, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate economics, Climate Lab Book, Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, coasts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, consumption, corporate responsibility, corporations, corruption, critical slowing down, ctDNA, Cult of Carbon, David Archer, David Spiegelhalter, decentralized electric power generation | Leave a comment

This flooding can’t be stopped. What about the rest?

Tamino is writing about this subject, too. That entirely makes complete sense as it is the biggest geophysical and environmental story out there right now. I’ve included an update at this post’s end discussing the possible economic impacts. It’s been … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Antarctica, Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, climate justice, coastal communities, coastal investment risks, coasts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, corporate litigation on damage from fossil fuel emissions, corporate responsibility, Cult of Carbon, environment, Eric Rignot, flooding, floods, glaciers, glaciology, global warming, greenhouse gases, hydrology, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, icesheets, investing, investments, John Englander, living shorelines, Massachusetts, New England, real estate values, rights of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, Robert M DeConto, Scituate, sea level rise, seawalls, shorelines, Stefan Rahmstorf, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, wishful environmentalism, ``The tide is risin'/And so are we'' | Leave a comment

Sidney, NY: The lead example of how the USA will deal with future coastal and riverine flooding?

From Bloomberg, the story of Sidney, NY, not that far from where I used to live in Endicott, NY. More than 400 homes and businesses ended up underwater in Sidney, affecting more than 2,000 people. It was months before Spry … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bridge to somewhere, climate, climate change, climate data, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, coastal communities, global warming, hydrology, Hyper Anthropocene, John Englander, living shorelines, riverine flooding | Leave a comment

LLNL Sankey diagram of U.S. national energy flows in 2017: What’s possible, what’s not, and who’s responsible

(Updated, 2018-05-02. See below.) I love Sankey diagrams, and have written about them with respect to influence of Big Oil on U.S. climate policy, and in connection with what it takes to power a light bulb, providing a Sankey-based explanation … Continue reading

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Solar Energy Society, AMETSOC, AMOC, Amory Lovins, Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to somewhere, clean disruption, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal communities, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Cult of Carbon, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, denial, ecological services, energy utilities, environmental law, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuel infrastructure, fossil fuels, global warming, Hermann Scheer, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, investment in wind and solar energy, Joseph Schumpeter, Kevin Anderson, local generation, local self reliance, rationality, reasonableness, regulatory capture, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Sonnen community, the green century, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, tragedy of the horizon, utility company death spiral, wind energy, wind power, wishful environmentalism, zero carbon | 2 Comments

forecast for 27th March 2018

Today is the 21st of March, 2018. We are supposed to get our fourth nor’easter tomorrow this late Winter, and the third nor’easter in nearly as many weeks. ECMWF hosted, in this incarnation, at the Meteocentre UQAM in Montreal created … Continue reading

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, atmosphere, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate models, coastal communities, ensemble methods, ensemble models, fluid dynamics, forecasting, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, meteorological models, meteorology, numerical algorithms, physics, science, science education, spaghetti plots, tragedy of the horizon, water vapor | Leave a comment

Sea-level report cards, contingency upon model character, and ensemble methods

Done by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, new sea-level report cards offer a look at current sea-level rise rates, and projections. What’s interesting to me is making the projections conditional upon the character of the model used to project. … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, anomaly detection, Bayesian model averaging, changepoint detection, climate disruption, climate economics, climate education, coastal communities, coasts, dynamical systems, ensemble methods, ensemble models, flooding, geophysics, global warming, Grant Foster, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, icesheets, living shorelines, meteorological models, nonlinear systems, prediction, sea level rise, shorelines, Skeptical Science, spaghetti plots, temporal myopia, the right to be and act stupid, the right to know, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon | Leave a comment

Boston, and nearby, 2nd March 2018

That’s Atlantic Avenue near the Aquarium. That’s Essex, in Cape Ann. That’s the Sargent’s Wharf parking lot. That’s is where General Electric wants to build their new headquarters (!). That’s Columbus Park, near the Aquarium. That’s Neponset Circle. That’s Plymouth … Continue reading

Posted in American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Statistical Association, Anthropocene, climate, climate change, climate economics, coastal communities, coasts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, flooding, floods, global blinding, global warming, hydrology, Hyper Anthropocene, meteorological models, meteorology, sea level rise, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, tragedy of the horizon | Leave a comment

`How old is today?` (Carl Safina)

How old is today? light comes from everywhere and from nowhere. The ocean, glittering then vanishing in gauzy vapors, handles us more gently than anyone could have hoped. Snow flurries in and hurries out. Mists veil coasts so raw, so … Continue reading

Posted in Antarctica, Anthropocene, biology, Carl Safina, Charles Darwin, coastal communities, coasts, ecological services, Ecological Society of America, ecology, Ecology Action, Henry David Thoreau, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, Nature, population biology, population dynamics | 1 Comment

A lesson for Boston

And, from the Harvard Business Review: There was a time a decade or two ago when society could have made a choice to write off our massive investment in a fossil fuel-based economy and begin a policy driven shift towards … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bollocks, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Worshipers, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal communities, coasts, Cult of Carbon, Daniel Kahneman, environment, flooding, floods, Florida, global blinding, global warming, greenhouse gases, hydrology, Hyper Anthropocene, John Englander, living shorelines, Mark Carney, nor'easters, oceanic eddies, oceanography, Our Children's Trust, rate of return regulation, rationality, reasonableness, sea level rise, seawalls, selfishness, shorelines, solar energy, the right to be and act stupid, water | Leave a comment

‘Nuf said: Ensembles as descriptions of Bayesian space-time posterior densities

(UPDATED, 2017-09-09, 12:38 EDT) Click here to see just the latest update. An exercise in the appreciation of ensemble models. By the way, many of these charts were obtained courtesy of my subscription at Weather Underground. They are, as far … Continue reading

Posted in American Meteorological Association, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, atmosphere, coastal communities, economics, ensemble models, environment, flooding, floods, George Monbiot, Green Tea Coalition, hurricanes, Hyper Anthropocene | Leave a comment

Houston, forward

For the purposes of this post, let’s pretend climate disruption does not exist (!). Let’s pretend Hurricane Harvey had no climate component, and that Hurricane Harvey was just another, big storm afflicting the fortunes of the U.S. Gulf coast. The … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bridge to somewhere, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal communities, Daniel Kahneman, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, environment, FEMA, flooding, floods, fossil fuel infrastructure, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, Joseph Schumpeter, living shorelines, reworking infrastructure, Robert Young, shorelines | Leave a comment

The South Shore Recycling Cooperative can save you money!

Abington, Cohasset, Duxbury, Hanover, Hanson, Hingham, Hull, Kingston, Middleboro, Norwell, Plymouth, Rockland, Scituate, Weymouth, Whitman Join ’em. Ask your town governors on the South Shore to check ’em out. It’s your tax dollars wasted if you don’t. What your town … Continue reading

Posted in Amory Lovins, Anthropocene, argoecology, coastal communities, composting, destructive economic development, ecological services, ecology, economics, environment, environmental law, Equiterre, Hyper Anthropocene, John Farrell, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, local self reliance, oceanography, Our Children's Trust, pollution, recycling, Sankey diagram, sociology, South Shore Recycling Cooperative, stranded assets, sustainability, the green century, UU Needham | Leave a comment

Why we sold our Disney Vacation Club timeshares

Hat tip to Climate Denial Crock of the Week, in their “Florida slowly confronting sea level nightmare.”

Posted in Anthropocene, being carbon dioxide, Bloomberg, carbon dioxide, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal communities, coasts, Disney, Disney Vacation Club, environmental law, flooding, Florida, global warming, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, Joe Romm, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, living shorelines, science education, shorelines, sustainability, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets | Leave a comment

`Environmental science in a post-truth world’ (Lubchenco and Kammen)

Jane Lubchenco is a Professor at Oregon State University, and was administrator of the U.S. NOAA from 2009 through 2013, the U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean at the State Department from 2014 to 2016, and the president of the … Continue reading

Posted in Akaike Information Criterion, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Statistical Association, being carbon dioxide, Buckminster Fuller, climate, climate change, coastal communities, coasts, ecological services, ecology, environment, environmental law, evidence, global warming, Humans have a lot to answer for, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, Jane Lubchenco, marine biology, mass extinctions, population biology, population dynamics, quantitative biology, quantitative ecology, risk, science, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, T'kun Olam, temporal myopia, the tragedy of our present civilization | Leave a comment

NCAR reports on a teleconnection between the Pacific and continental USA

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (“NCAR”) reports on a newly substantiated teleconnection between positive sea surface temperature anomalies (“SSTA”) in the Pacific and the temperatures over the continental United States (“CONUS”) 50 days later. A teleconnection is: A linkage … Continue reading

Posted in American Meteorological Association, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, atmosphere, attribution, climate, climate data, coastal communities, coasts, dynamical systems, environment, fluid dynamics, fluid eddies, food, forecasting, geophysics, hydrology, Hyper Anthropocene, living shorelines, Mathematics and Climate Research Network, meteorological models, meteorology, National Center for Atmospheric Research, NCAR, NOAA, oceanic eddies, oceanography, open data, Principles of Planetary Climate, sea level rise, U.S. Navy, WHOI, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | Leave a comment

Climate Potpourri: Flooding and Solar (both from Ars)

And they who will not be ready, will suffer the economic consequences. Ready for flooding: Boston analyzes how to tackle climate change (That water is a foot deep, previously reported in a post here. Click on image to see larger … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, American Meteorological Association, American Solar Energy Society, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Boston, carbon dioxide, citizenship, civilization, CleanTechnica, climate, climate business, climate change, climate disruption, climate economics, coastal communities, environment, flooding, floods, fossil fuels, global warming, green tech, greenhouse gases, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, investment in wind and solar energy, John Englander, Joseph Schumpeter, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, living shorelines, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, meteorology, oceanography, resiliency, shorelines, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, sustainability, T'kun Olam, the energy of the people, the green century, the value of financial assets | Leave a comment

On the rise of the Trumpistas …

Just a couple of things to write about The Obvious. I have written a couple of longer thoughts as Comments, here and here, at … And Then There’s Physics. I reiterate that I don’t believe any voter was hoodwinked, that … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Meteorological Association, American Solar Energy Society, American Statistical Association, AMETSOC, Anthropocene, atheism, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, BNEF, bridge to nowhere, Buckminster Fuller, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Carbon Worshipers, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate zombies, coastal communities, consumption, corporate supply chains, cynicism, Daniel Kahneman, denial, disingenuity, Donald Trump, dynamical systems, Equiterre, exponential growth, extended supply chains, Exxon, fear uncertainty and doubt, forecasting, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ice sheet dynamics, ignorance, Joseph Schumpeter, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action, meteorology, Minsky moment, moral leadership, oceanography, organizational failures, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reason, reasonableness, risk, science, science denier, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, solar democracy, solar domination, solar energy, solar power, Spaceship Earth, temporal myopia, the energy of the people, the right to be and act stupid, the tragedy of our present civilization, the value of financial assets, Tony Seba, wind energy, wind power, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, ``The tide is risin'/And so are we'' | 2 Comments