WLRN 91.3 FM | By John Pacenti | Key Biscayne Independent
Published October 27, 2023 at 3:57 PM EDT

Scientists are looking at the latest advance in computer science — artificial intelligence to better predict mammoth hurricanes, raging wildfires and increased coastal flooding.

Professor Ben Kirtman at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel school is leading the AI effort with three new federal grants totaling more than $3 million.

The grants are from the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and will be used to improve predictive analytics on three fronts.

A $750,000 grant will focus on coastal flooding in East Coast municipalities like Key Biscayne, aiming to give local communities long-term flood predictions that go beyond just anticipating hurricane storm surge

Read the full article

A new video shares the most up-to-date sea level rise projections for the United States, and encourages viewers to take some initial steps. The video highlights key takeaways from the 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report, with a focus on the impacts on coastal communities. Viewers are encouraged to consider actions they can take within their communities, and directed to existing web tools for assessing the timing and severity of local impacts from sea level rise.

In September, FEMA announced an initial 483 census tracts nationwide that will be eligible for increased federal support to become more resilient to natural hazards and extreme weather worsened by the climate crisis – known as Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZ). FEMA will use the CDRZ designations to direct and manage financial and technical assistance for resilience projects in these areas. The CDRZ designations identify communities most at risk of the effects of natural hazards and climate change using a tailored version of the National Risk Index that takes into consideration socioeconomic vulnerability as well as physical exposure and risk. An initial 32 CDRZ designations have been identified in Florida.

Read FEMA’s press release here. View an interactive map of all CDRZ designations here.

The University of Florida's Scientist in Every Florida School program within the Thompson Earth Systems Institute (TESI) is looking for scientists to join our database for virtual and in-person K-12 classroom visits to talk about their fields. We are interested in all field areas, but have a great need for the following at this time:

Astronomy- all space related fields
Physics- forces, motion, energy related fields
Chemistry- physical and chemical properties and changes in matter
Meteorology- climate, weather related fields
Climate Change related fields
 

Sign up for K-12 visits
Learn more about TESI's programs

The White House’s new National Climate Resilience Framework outlines more than a dozen essential measures that help prepare the nation to adjust to the accelerating impacts of climate change.

The impacts of a warming world are already being felt, and this year the United States has experienced a record number of billion-dollar climate and weather disasters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Full report

A new paper "Can Florida’s Coast Survive Its Reliance on Development?Fiscal Vulnerability and Funding Woes Under Sea Level Rise" is now out in JAPA, open access. How much will sea level rise will affect local government revenues in Florida? A LOT: 211 municipalities, $619 billion in assessed property values that currently contribute $2.36 billion. Some 64 municipalities have 50%+ of revenues sitting within 6.5 feet of current sea levels. We pair our spatial analysis with a statewide survey of coastal planners and show that there is no relationship between the level of fiscal risk & prioritization of adaptation planning.

Big picture takeaways:
- fiscal risk from climate change is real but ignored
- fiscal policy - including reliance on property tax - constrains creative solutions
- market responses will likely result in resilient upland enclaves and vulnerable, poorer coastal towns.

What to do?
- recognize fiscal risk and assess it like we do with physical infrastructure and social vulnerability. We need a national fiscal climate risk dataset!
- enable regional land and revenue sharing. NH's SB285 allowing coastal towns to merge due to SLR is a start
- promote cooperative strategies like community land trusts and limited equity cooperative housing to help lower-income groups avoid displacement and adapt

Read the full open access article here

The University of Florida’s new AmeriCorps program, GatorCorps, is recruiting the first cohort of national service members!

The program will open up opportunities (20+ funded positions per year f/t or p/t) for UF students and graduates to gain experience with Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience partners in the field. GatorCorps members will extend and apply the resilience and risk reduction knowledge that has matured in UF in practical and service-oriented ways, furthering our research and education missions in front-line communities. We will be hiring student members to serve in Gainesville for 10-20 hours per week, with f/t graduate opportunities in Gainesville, Cedar Key, and Jacksonville.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the program is full.

Are you a university-based, tenure-track researcher interested in and/or currently doing science communication? We invite you to participate in an exciting research study aimed at understanding how scientists construct identity and engage in public outreach. Your valuable insights will ultimately contribute to the development and support of scientist communicators nationwide.

Research study interest form

Questions?
Contact Brenda Guerrero (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Remy Dou (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

The full scope of Hurricane Idalia’s destruction is still coming into focus, but experts say one thing is clear: It could have been more like the damage wrought by Hurricane Ian had it hit anywhere else on the Florida coast. Professors Jeff Carney and Kathryn Frank spoke with CNN.

Read the full story here.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) just published an excellent piece of work, “The Climate Dictionary: Speak Climate Fluently", defining 40 frequently used climate terms in a simple way, addressing the need for accurate, easy-to-understand information about climate change.

The dictionary defines important basic terminologies such as the distinction between weather and climate:

𝑾𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 “…refers to atmospheric conditions at a particular time in a particular location, including temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, wind, and visibility. Weather conditions do not happen in isolation, they have a ripple effect. The weather in one region will eventually affect the weather hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.”
 
𝑪𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆 “…is the average of weather patterns in a specific area over a longer period of time, usually 30 or more years, that represents the overall state of the climate system.”
 
The dictionary goes beyond strictly climate change-related items, and also covers such terminologies like "blue economy" and "greenwashing".

See the full download here

Florida researchers have received $1.5 million from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to map climate change health burdens.

Florida State University is partnering with Colorado University Boulder and Tulane University to identify climate change and health disparities along the Gulf Coast.

Read the full story here

Record-setting warm overnight temperatures in Florida and Puerto Rico were made at least five times more likely by climate change, according to a new attribution analysis by Climate Central.

The climate-fueled heat exposed millions of people to potential heat-related health impacts as well as the economic burden of increased energy costs.

Read the full analysis here.

 

 

 

 

By Megan Mascheri (FAU Center for Environmental Studies)

A Q&A with Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist and climate specialist at WFLA News Channel 8 in Tampa.

Read the full discussion here.

 

 

By Mary Anna Mancuso (RepublicEn.org)

The warming planet and marine waters are bringing the topic of climate change and solutions to the forefront of conversations.

Read Mancuso's full article here.

 

 

North Carolina State University has been awarded a new cooperative agreement from the U.S. Geological Survey to continue to host the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (SE CASC) for the next five years. The award caps over 12 years of success as the host organization for the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center.

Read the full news release here.

 

 

 

 

Will Charouhis was inspired to create a youth-led group to combat climate change by flooding in Miami from Hurricane Irma in 2017. At just 13 years old, Charouhis founded the nonprofit We Are Forces of Nature. Now 17, his continuing work on climate issues includes a project aimed at helping 1 million mangroves thrive.

Will Charouhis leads the project “A Million Mangroves: Halting Climate Change One Root at a Time”. Invading Sea readers might know Charouhis from the opinion pieces that he’s written for this website, including a piece on a speech by Jane Goodall in Miami. He serves on the Jane Goodall Institute’s USA Roots & Shoots National Youth Leadership Council.

He leads the project “A Million Mangroves: Halting Climate Change One Root at a Time” for the organization. The project is intended to regenerate mangrove forests that absorb greenhouse gas emissions, protect against coastal erosion and provide habitat for marine life.

At the beginning of the pandemic lockdown in 2020, Charouhis purchased a used kayak and started cleaning up mangroves near his home. When restrictions loosened, he began conducting monthly cleanups with his friends, cleaning up six miles of mangroves stretching down to the Florida Keys.

He also started planting mangroves, experimenting with ways to help ensure the plants survive. Young people around Miami have joined Forces of Nature in the planting effort, including a large planting on Virginia Key.

Learn more from Charouhis himself in this video

The 2023 Envision Resilience New Bedford and Fairhaven Challenge participating universities are the Rhode Island School of Design, Northeastern University, the University of Florida, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and the University of Virginia. The Envision Resilience Challenge, a semester-long design studio and community engagement initiative connects interdisciplinary teams from leading universities with coastal communities to imagine resilient pathways in the face of climate change through adaptive design. Since its inception three years ago, the program has worked with more than 200 students from nine universities to serve the six coastal communities of Nantucket, Wickford, Warren, Providence, Aquidneck Island and Barrington. Carolyn Cox of the FCI helps with the academic coordination of this initiative to give UF students the opportunity to work across universities, disciplines, and geographies.  

Once the whaling capital of the world and now home to the highest-earning fishing port in the country, New Bedford and Fairhaven have long been defined by their connection to the water. Like coastal communities around the world, these seaport towns are facing rising sea levels, increasingly hotter temperatures and more frequent and intensifying storms. Envision Resilience students this year will once again be tasked with identifying threats, researching possible solutions and proposing innovative ways of living under future conditions that address issues of environment, housing, transportation, equity, local industry, ecology and resilience. A cohort of community advisors will serve as liaisons between the student teams and the communities so that outcomes reflect the values, cultures and needs of the people.

“The 2022 Envision Resilience Narragansett Bay Challenge opened up my thinking to what's possible,” said climate consultant Curt Spalding, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator under the Obama Administration and the former executive director of Save the Bay. “It raised the bar for developing a longer-term effort for planning across Rhode Island communities. There is no doubt of the impact this program will have on the New Bedford and Fairhaven communities.”

Each year, final designs of the Envision Resilience Challenge are presented to the community through a number of local events and a multi-month exhibition. To date, these designs have reimagined coastal edges and urban systems through nature-based solutions in vulnerable areas and regenerative systems in a post-carbon economy and explored new ways of living that embrace healthy, sustainable and equitable systems. From floating wharves and raised streetscapes to living, integrated shorelines and net-zero buildings that use hemp lime construction, the student work has inspired conversations on how local residents can work together to consider adaptive waterfronts and neighborhoods that benefit people, ecosystems, recreation and resilience.

Click here to see designs from previous challenges in Nantucket and Narragansett Bay.

New research, published in Nature Climate Change, shows more detailed role of salt marshes, fjords

Coastal ecosystems globally lock away more carbon dioxide than they release, but emissions of two other greenhouse gases – methane and nitrous oxide – counteract that to a degree, according to international researchers led by Australia’s Southern Cross University that include a University of Florida biogeochemist.

The new findings of the coastal greenhouse gas balance in 10 regions globally are outlined in the paper published in Nature Climate Change.

From tropical lagoons to polar fjords, from coastal mangrove forests to underwater seagrass communities, many coastlines around the world show high diversity in greenhouse gas sinks and emissions.

Read the full article featured in UF Liberal Arts and Sciences NEWS

Please join us in congratulating our 6 new FCI Student Climate Fellows!

Each submitted outstanding original ideas for exploring climate-related research projects AND plans to communicate their findings. This program will not only help prepare our next generation of climate leaders, but it will also help inform communities in Florida about these urgent issues.  

Check out these new fellows and stay tuned for more FCI opportunities!