Science Partnership for Global Change Education
Solution
Rising Seas
While there is no quick fix to the multitude of climate change impacts, there are an amazing array of ideas being explored to help us adapt to the changes that climate change brings and mitigate future impacts. We hope this section is a beacon of hope within a tough subject.
Bringing climate change issues into your classroom can be daunting since there are so many devastating ways we are affected. Wherever we look, the news about climate and weather is dire and catastrophic. Highlighting solutions and actions we can take as individuals or as a society helps change the narrative and emotions about climate change.
Our goal in this section is to provide inspiration and hope for ourselves and our students. We can solve this! And here are some things that are being done or some amazing ideas that are being researched. We hope you share these ideas with your student to empower them to be part of the solution.
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Seawall in Florida
Downtown Miami during high tide
Cape Hatteras lighthouse before it was moved
Adapting to Sea Level Rise
Climate change has already locked in almost a foot of sea level rise by 2050 and more in the decades beyond. By mid-century, one billion people will be exposed to much greater risks of flooding due to sea level rise. So, how can we adapt?
There are 3 main strategies: protect, accommodate, or retreat
Examples of protection are building hard structures such as seawalls and levees. This strategy is widely used especially in large coastal cities. Seawalls, levees, and surge barriers cost a lot to build and even more to maintain.
Accommodation includes modifying existing structures to decrease risks such measures as elevating structures above the encroaching sea. These measures do not prevent flooding but reduce the potential for damage or make living with the problem more tolerable. For example, Miami has been elevating streets and sidewalks to minimize flooding risks.
And the ultimate adaptation strategy is moving structures and people away from the coast. This is the simplest solution to eliminate the risk of flood damage. Retreat is the only strategy that permanently eliminates the potential for future damages. This strategy was employed to save the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which was moved 2,900 feet inland to avoid sea level rise.
There are examples from around the world where these strategies have been successfully employed at scales small and large. All of these climate adaptation strategies suffer from one current flaw: We typically don’t take action on them until after a major coastal disaster has already happened.
(Material adapted from IPCC Report 2022)