Water makes our lives possible.
We drink and bathe in the fresh stuff, and we regularly focus on vacationing at a place where we can swim in the salty stuff (or at least relax on the beach listening to the waves).
It can be hard at times to imagine more water being a bad thing when you hear about all the shortages and droughts in so many places. But more water means more flooding, which comes with its own set of challenges. And more water – especially when it’s more ocean water – can be disastrous in many ways. It can reduce our stormwater systems’ capacity to store rainwater during storms. It can seep into our stores of drinking water. And, it can make it extremely difficult to know where the water is going to go in hurricanes or tropical storms.
The ocean is changing the ways it interacts with our coastal communities, and it is time (and more and more possible) for us living in those communities to catch up!
What’s really happening?
There’s a lot that goes in to studying this. At times, it seems like the amount of research on ocean changes could fill the ocean. The increasing level of the ocean, known commonly as sea-level rise, is one of the most talked about ocean changes. It can be easily explained as having two main causes:
- melting land ice (think glaciers, not the Titanic/icebergs)
- thermal expansion, which is a fancy term that means that water takes up more space as it warms
Don’t let me explain it all, though! Check out this short video on the basics of sea-level rise in the northern Gulf.
The Basics: Northern Gulf Sea-Level Rise from NGOM Sentinel Site Cooperative on Vimeo.
What can I do?
It feels like we try to simplify what can be done to solve these big issues – be zero-waste, carbon neutral, buy all local, etc. But in reality, we don’t need any individual to do these things perfectly. What we need is a great number of people doing these things imperfectly and, most importantly, having discussions about their experiences!
We don’t get anything done if we don’t communicate. If a town planner, for instance, isn’t aware that they should be preparing their community for rising sea levels, or what levels they should be preparing for, and isn’t aware that their community is ready and willing to work with them to help that happen, then they won’t take action. There are also a couple of myths that are difficult to dispel…
Taking smaller actions does not mean smaller results!
Having less money does not mean you can’t take action!
To see what I’m talking about, you can check out these case studies from across the Gulf. All of these projects were done with small grants ($40,000), and they can all be connected to sea-level rise resilience.
All of this goes to show that more water means more problems but more money, no matter how nice it might be to have, is not the only solution!
The Resilience to Future Flooding project has a small grant funding opportunity and is about to begin accepting project ideas for communities within the northern Gulf. Learn more at the project page here.
Not ready for the Resilience to Future Flooding funding opportunity but might be doing something similar in the future? The Northern Gulf Sentinel Site Cooperative is always hearing about and keeping track of sea-level rise funding opportunities, so feel free to reach out to us! Learn more at www.ngomssc.org.
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