Early November brought Alaska its worst storm in decades. It was described as “historic
,” and “massive
While there is debate about the effect anthropogenic climate change has on current weather, there is increasing evidence Alaska’s recent storm (and, even more clearly, coastal hurricanes) have human fingerprints all over them
Since sea ice acts as a buffer
to storms coming in off the ocean, as do wetlands
in more temperate regions, absence of sea ice and wetlands would expose coastal populations to greater impacts from storms coming in from the sea.
Unfortunately, we have been doing a pretty good job of removing these helpful buffers. For example, Worldwatch Institute says
that 1,900 square miles of coastal islands and marshland have vanished in Louisiana since the 1930s.
And, of course, there are myriad studies that identify man-made global warming’s role in loss of sea ice
Add up all those statistics and one could determine that our loss of coastal protection illustrates our loss of survival instinct.
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Interview: Katie Kline, Communications Officer at Ecological Society of America interviewed me via Skype for the ESA’s Ecotone blog. Read and hear it here
Video: Bebbo and Kito were featured in one of Jim Parks’ terrific Today’s Green Minute episodes. See the video! Learn more