Climate Change

The implications of a changing global climate are perhaps nowhere more alarming than at the places where the land meets the sea.

Even a relatively small rise in sea level, for instance, could spell trouble for low-lying coastal communities. The potential for shifting weather patterns, alteration in aquatic habitats, increased coastal erosion and flooding: These and other climate-related issues are significant for those who live and work on our coasts.

Most major scientific analyses and forecasts associated with global climate change have been linked to large scales of time (decades to centuries) and space (continents and other large regions of the planet). While that perspective is critical to understanding climate change, people and communities need help addressing the issues closer to home, in the places where they live, work, and play, if they are to plan and respond to such changes.

Oregon Sea Grant's unique combination of research, education, communications, and public engagement allows us to take a broad approach to addressing community needs for scientific knowledge and practical tools.

Climate Variability and Coastal Community Resilience

Helping coastal communities prepare for climate change

Coastal decision-makers, both public and private, are key to focusing a community’s attention on preparing for climate change. This project works with such decision makers on the Oregon coast, and in a parallel effort, on the coast of Maine. Begun in 2007, this project, led by OSG assistant director, Joe Cone, involves teams of scientists, Extension faculty, and educators in each state, who began by asking the decision-makers about their attitudes, knowledge, and concerns related to climate change.

Findings from surveys conducted in both states in 2008 form the basis of cooperative work with communities that began in 2009. Our approach is a mutual one, working directly with coastal communities to address their concerns about climate change, help them assess risks and develop strategies so they can adapt to the changing local conditions they foresee.

The project employs innovative decision-making tools, including concept mapping and influence diagramming, to help local groups visualize their collective understanding of the effects of climate change and assess the risks associated with those effects.
Funded by the NOAA Climate Program office, the Oregon-Maine collaboration is also among one of several initiatives by Oregon universities and state government relating to coastal climate change.

Nationally, Sea Grant has recognized climate change as a priority issue for coastal constituents, and has incorporated it into one of four national strategic focus areas in the program's revised strategic plan for 2009-2013.

Oregon Sea Grant, meanwhile, brings to this effort the experience of four decades of direct outreach and engagement with communities on the Oregon Coast, including research and outreach efforts on topics of coastal change and resilience dating back to the early 1990s.

Natural and Social Science for Understanding and Decision Making

Oregon Sea Grant Communications produces a growing number of audio and video interviews with leading scientists who bring their own research perspectives to bear on the environmental and human dimensions of climate change.

Video

Building a Resilient Coast: Maine Confronts Climate Change is a new video produced by Oregon Sea Grant as part of a collaborative research project with our sister program in Maine that attempts to help the nation's coastal communities understand and prepare for climate change. View 12 short segments from the video online (Flash format):

1. Perspectives on Climate Change in Maine
2. Sea Level Rise Brings Ocean Onshore
3. Marine Resources Will be Affected
4. Potential Local Costs of Climate Change
5. The Future Won’t Look like the Past
6. Public Safety, Public Attitudes
7. Science for Resilience
8. Regulations for Protection
9. Building with the Future in Mind
10. Creating Natural Buffers
11. Restoring Dunes, Protecting Neighborhoods
12. The Best We Can Do

The complete video in DVD format is available from Maine Sea Grant at 207-581-1435 or umseagrant@maine.edu.

Ocean acidification – A three-part interview with Dr. Richard Feely, NOAA lead scientist conducting research on this troubling climate-linked phenomenon (Flash video format)

• Part I: What is ocean acidification
• Part II: How are ocean animals affected?
• Part III: How will ocean ecosystems be affected?

Audio Podcast

Communicating Climate Change - Extended audio interviews with leading social scientists about the human dimensions of climate change. The podcast is aimed at professional science communicators, whose job it is to explain complex scientific concepts and the work of scientists to the public at large. Listen to the interviews, subscribe to the podcast to be alerted to new episodes. Also available on iTunes.