SWANSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Historic cities and towns along the Southeastern U.S. coast have survived wars, hurricanes, disease outbreaks and other calamities, but now that sea levels are creeping up with no sign of stopping, they face a more existential crisis.

How long will the fight last? Water is eroding land all over the world, threatening people’s lives and livelihoods, especially those living along the coastline. According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the oceans and cryosphere in a changing climate, sea levels, globally, are expected to rise by between 0.61 and 1.1 metres by 2100 – as a combined result of melting icecaps and waters expanding as their temperatures rise. In addition to the plight of the island nations disappearing beneath the waves, as in the Pacific, all low-lying communities near the sea are at risk, particularly from coastal flooding after major weather events.

A rising tide of sustainably minded travelers are looking to cruise the old-school way.

Officials are increasingly recognizing that integrating nature into cities is an effective public health strategy to improve mental health. Doctors around the world now administer “green prescriptions” – where patients are encouraged to spend time in local nature spaces – based on hundreds of studies showing that time in nature can benefit people’s psychological well-being and increase social engagement.

The offshore wind industry is making great strides in developing technology to build projects further from the shore, including technological innovations in floating foundations and hydrogen storage. However, a new report by Chatham Partners, a boutique law firm specializing in renewable energy, indicates that if such technology were to allow the construction of wind farms in the high seas, the current legal framework would not have the scope to cover such development.

In 2012, the State Department of the United States declared December 4 “Wildlife Conservation Day.” They wanted to highlight wildlife trafficking and illegal trade — and recognize the important work of conservationists around the world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), joined by partners Shell and TransRe, announced $30 million in new grants to support coastal resilience projects in 23 states and U.S. territories.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) is leading a pioneering international project to sequence the DNA of marine microbes in the Arctic Ocean.

A conveyor belt of ocean water that loops the planet and regulates global temperatures could be heading for a tipping point.

Millions of years before Colombia won its independence from Spain at the historic Battle of Boyacá, the site was covered by an inland ocean inhabited by marine invertebrates. Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and collaborators discovered a new fossil species of comma shrimp that was remarkably well preserved in mid-Cretaceous rocks of Boyacá, now part of the Colombian Andes, allowing them to fill a 160 million-year gap in the evolution of these crustaceans.

Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S will cut hundreds of jobs to cut costs as the shipping giant prepares for significantly higher fuel costs next year and plans to invest more heavily in inland logistics services.

"I'm a real estate developer and this is a developer's dream,” spoke Lela Goren, a NYC-based developer and investor during a UN Habitat event as she looked over a scale model of Oceanix City—a floating city concept that could be deployed around the world.

New Delhi: Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Babul Supriyo said that the Ministry has embarked upon a program for ‘Blue Flag’ certification for select beaches in the country.

New reports are questioning the effectiveness of cap-and-trade programs against climate change in California and for East Coast states. Emissions in California and globally are projected to skyrocket in the decades ahead unless significant action is taken.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (11/30/19) — Last week, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul reintroduced the Harbor Equity Act (S. 2923), which modifies the existing criteria used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge smaller harbors.

An Oregon State University anthropologist has been awarded $750,000 by the National Science Foundation to research issues facing coastal communities exposed to repetitive flooding, and the effectiveness of federal disaster response policies.

This is the first in a series of brief observations following this year’s IAAPA show (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions). I’ve enjoyed going to IAAPA for more than twenty years.

Greenpeace international director Jennifer Morgan spoke to DW about how climate change is linked to human rights and why the world's poorest countries might eventually have to go to court to get climate funding.

The U.K. economy could face hits of more than 12 billion pounds ($15.4 billion) a year by 2050 from coastal damages alone if no action is taken to combat climate change, according to the WWF.

On December 2, National Oceanography Centre (NOC) scientists will embark on a research expedition that will see them spend Christmas and New Year sailing through remote waters in the Southern Ocean onboard RRS Discovery. This is part of the project, led by the NOC, to understand the role of this notoriously rough part of the ocean in taking up and storing carbon from the atmosphere. The team will largely be focusing on studying the seasonal growth of tiny marine plants, called phytoplankton.

Ocean warming threatens to wipe out corals, but scientists are trying to protect naturally resilient reefs and are nursing some others back to health.

Private properties in Sunbelt tourist magnets are increasingly up for rent on short-term-rental platforms like Airbnb, HomeAway and Vrbo — prompting some local officials to fight back.

Don Lambie says mismanagement and endless talk will end with extinction

Over 400 people lost their lives in December 2018 when Anak Krakatoa erupted and partially collapsed into the sea, sending a wave westward towards the Indonesian island of Sumatra that was between 5 and 13 metres high when it made landfall less than an hour later.

Stretch of consecutive above-normal seasons continues

The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) has appointed Ronnie Tan as regional aquaculture consultant for Southeast Asia.

Fishermen, boaters and the merchants who serve them are in for another round of changes to the production of nautical charts.

Investigating economic, environmental impacts of natural disasters

Strong ocean swells hammer ridges in the seafloor — producing earthquake-like shakes

As astronauts took the first first steps on the moon, aquatic explorers were experimenting with entire ocean cities.

Levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached another record high, the World Meteorological Organisation has warned.

According to new report available with Million Insights, Aquaculture Industry Report by Material, Application, and Geography – Global Market Forecast to 2020 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional aquaculture market conditions, focusing on the main regions.

When Hurricane Michael exploded in strength over the Gulf of Mexico in October 2018 and hit Florida with a devastating storm surge and 160 mile-per-hour winds, it marked the first Category 5 storm to reach the Panhandle and only the fifth to make landfall in the United States.

Connie Monroe clicks a button, flicks her wrist and watches as her neighborhood floods.

Since winning the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Young Champions of the Earth prize 12 months ago, Better Blue founder Miao Wang has taken China’s diving community by storm.

Swiss finance giant credit Suisse has partnered with The World Bank to issue a $28.6m (£22.2m) bond aimed at financing the protection and restoration of fresh and saltwater resources and habitats.

The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD rated Aaa/AAA) issued a USD 28.6 million 5-year Sustainable Development Bond as part of ongoing efforts to raise awareness for the vital role fresh and saltwater resources play for people, livelihoods, and the planet.

The world is heading towards a crisis which threatens to halt the continued construction of modern civilisation. There is, however, a silver lining: this time, we can’t bury our heads in the sand.

Vertebrate, insect, and plant cell lines are important tools for research in many disciplines, including human health, evolutionary and developmental biology, agriculture and toxicology. Cell lines have been established for many organisms, including freshwater and terrestrial invertebrates.

The prospect of regulation means companies are seeking to prepare

SUBJECT: Ocean Mapping of the United States Exclusive Economic Zone and the Shoreline and Nearshore of Alaska

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), along with NOAA, has revealed a $3 million prize competition to generate innovation in marine energy-powered ocean observing platforms.

In his new book, "The Geography of Risk: Epic Storms, Rising Seas, and the Cost of America's Coast," Pulitzer-prize winning author Gilbert Gaul takes a look at the U.S. history of coastal development since World War II - and finds a recipe for disaster.

Barry Myers, President Trump’s controversial nominee to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has withdrawn from consideration due to health concerns, an administration official confirmed Wednesday evening.

Coastal states are turning to resilience planning to confront extreme weather and climate change. New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida have all hired chief resilience officers to oversee their states’ resilience strategies. Louisiana has been a leader in coastal resilience for more than a decade.

At a time when ocean noise is receiving increased global attention, researchers at Oregon State University and NOAA have developed an effective method to use an underwater robotic glider to measure sound levels over broad areas of the sea.

The Waterways Journal has covered news involving dredging and marine construction since it first hit print in 1887, but soon that coverage will expand greatly.

Someday soon, analysts will determine that a city or county, or maybe a school district or utility, is so vulnerable to sea level rise, flooding, drought or wildfire that it is an investment risk.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced developments in two new prizes: Waves to Water, which challenges innovators to desalinate water using the power of ocean waves, and the Powering the Blue Economy™ Ocean Observing Prize.

NOAA is seeking proposals for 2020 grant awards through our Community-based Restoration Program.

NOAA is initiating a five-year process to end all traditional paper nautical chart production and is seeking the public’s feedback via a Federal Register Notice published on November 15, 2019.

The Government Accountability Office calls in a report for EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to state directly that dealing with the rising risks of seas, storms or wildfires breaching Superfund sites under climate change is part of the agency’s mission

People from North Carolina to Texas’ Gulf Coast agree that their areas have been hard hit by extreme storms and hurricanes in recent years. But they disagree with one another on whether climate change is a major factor — and political allegiances make up the dividing line.

You may not always think about it when you do your laundry or flush the toilet, but whatever you eat, wear or apply on your skin ends up in wastewater and eventually reaches the environment. The use of nanoparticles in consumer products like textiles, foods and personal care products is increasing. What is so special about nanoparticles is their tiny size: One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. The small size gives nanoparticles unique and novel properties compared to their bigger counterparts and may for example reach locations that bigger particles cannot reach.

A beautiful slide presentation on the new science aimed at preserving existing coral reefs, and the people who are pioneering the effort to save coral reefs from warming waters.

John Hankins owns the boat “Courageous,” which he sails out of Warrenton on the northern Oregon coast. He had a smile after returning from 25 days fishing for albacore.

New extremes are testing roads, bridges, dams and utilities to unprecedented degrees, even as they age beyond their intended lifespan.

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Andrew Gallo doesn’t remember the accident that left him a quadriplegic. The last thing he does recall is being in South Florida. It was December 2016 and while it was winter back home on Long Island, Miami Beach was warm and sunny.

Nokia conducted world's first-of-their-kind tests in Sendai coastal areas which were devastated by the tsunami to show the effectiveness of drones using a private LTE network for disaster prevention and mitigation.

The federal government is delaying implementation of a major change to its pricing formula for federal flood insurance that bases rates on a more accurate assessment of the real flood threat for each home and reflects the cost of rebuilding a home.

Analysis from the Surfrider Foundation finds that only 26% of states earned above a 'C' average when graded on policies to protect the nation's coastlines

“Those in the fishing industry fully appreciate the potential threats posed by marine litter.”

More research is needed to understand its effects on fisheries and humans

From October 31 through November 21, 2019, NOAA and partners will conduct mapping and remotely operated vehicle operations from NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to collect critical baseline information about unknown and poorly understood deepwater areas of the Southeastern U.S. continental margin.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - A new ruling from the federal government could save coastal communities a lot of money on beach renourishment costs, according to a press release from Congressman David Rouzer.

Portable, easy-to-use and low-cost technology could be used by fish farmers to monitor water quality quickly and conveniently. A team of engineers has developed a highly sensitive system that uses a smartphone to rapidly detect the presence of toxin-producing algae in water within 15 minutes.

Supported by the Office of the Provost, the first Abess Scholars have wide latitude to bridge the gap between science and environmental policy.

Early-career scientists came together recently to learn to use a suite of ocean biogeochemical sensors, with the goal of closing the knowledge gap between ocean technology and potential end users.

Insights from a new study could spark discoveries about Martian landscapes and also help researchers get to the bottom of canyon formation here on Earth.

Sunny Garcia scares me. Always has. For one reason or another, when I was a young surfer in the early 1990s, I picked Sunny out of the constellation of hard-ass Hawaiians I could have feared to be the surfing boogeyman. Of course, I had nothing to fear from Sunny, or Johnny Boy Gomes, or Marvin Foster, or any of their contemporaries from where I lived, thousands of miles away on the Central Coast of California, with plenty of deranged beardos yelling at unfamiliar faces over wonky reefbreaks I should have been afraid of instead. But, nope, it was Sunny who haunted me. I’d flip through the pages of surf mags and see Sunny glaring out at me through an ad. Press play on a video and watch him cleave a poor North Shore wave in half with an honest-to-god man turn. Walk into a surf shop and see a poster of him standing tall and buff in a horrifying inside Sunset barrel and I’d be intimidated, a little frightened even. Not just because the dude looked like he could flay the skin of a haole’s back with one sideways glance, but because his entire approach to waves—powerful, consequential waves—called my hesitant ass into question. This was a man for whom the concept of “fear” could not possibly exist. His badassery frightened me because it reflected my own shortcomings back in a big, giant mirror. When I first ventured to the North Shore, my main concern was not in any way pissing Sunny off.

The timing of oil giant Shell’s decision to acquire French floating wind firm Eolfi is “very sensible”, but isn’t likely to herald a revolution in how it invests its money, according to a top energy expert.

We have to decarbonize planet earth in the coming decades.

Countries have pooled billions of dollars to preserve rainforests and wetlands in developing nations. But they pose thorny political challenges.

We’ve made little progress in preparing our communities and vital ecosystems for storms and sea-level rise, but there are tools we can use if government agencies and nonprofits take action.

I was born in Los Angeles California, a son of Costa Rican immigrants. I was raised next to the ocean, in a town called Manhattan Beach. I would spend the summers at the beach, but what really inspired me to protect the ocean was watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. Thanks to Cousteau, I have been aware of overfishing and the way we endanger the ocean’s inhabitants from a very early age.

Oligochaete worms can substantially speed up the reuse of both dredged sediment and contaminated mine tailings. Researchers from Deltares, with the support from the University of Alberta, Queen Mary University of London and NAIT (polytechnic and applied research institute) have determined this in laboratory tests. In the Netherlands, this nature-based technology is promising for the circular reuse of dredged material, while in Canada the mining industry is interested particularly for mine sites closure.

'We're going to be living in times that call for pretty radical solutions,' one expert says.

Today, the Chamber of Shipping released a Report Card on the progress of the Oceans Protection Plan (OPP) as it relates to commercial shipping. Overall, the fifty-plus programs under the OPP have had varied levels of success. Certain programs have suffered from a lack of resources and a lack of an integrated approach between Federal Departments. Additionally, there has been little intent to connect OPP programs with Government reviews associated with port governance, and supply chain efficiency and productivity, missing an opportunity to align the OPP with trade objectives.

Coastal environments have been shown to improve our health, body and mind. So should doctors start issuing nature-based prescriptions?

The blooms have the potential to kill marine mammals, but researchers don’t know why

Each time we face another hurricane, tornado or strong storm, it’s hard not to wonder how it will impact our communities. What will happen to our roads, bridges, levees, airports, homes power plants—or other piece of transportation infrastructure.

A report from the San Francisco Federal Reserve underscores how climate shifts create big investment and economic risks

Marine sediments play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle due to the oxygen consumption and CO2 respiration of the organisms that live in and on the ocean floor. To help predict the changing contribution of this respiration to the carbon cycle in a warming world, researchers from the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) and universities in Taiwan have compiled the largest open-access database available of the sediment community oxygen consumption and CO2 respiration. Their findings are published in Nature Scientific Data.

For years, Louisiana was the only state in the country to have a master plan for dealing with coastal land loss. Now other states, like Texas, are following suit. Louisiana´s motivation is clear: The state loses approximately a football-field’s worth of land every hour. Louisiana´s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority estimates that, left unattended, the loss of the state’s wetlands will worsen the annual cost of flood damage from an average of $2.7 billion to approximately $19.9 billion. Yet in the face of such dire predictions, some see an opportunity for southern Louisiana to position itself as a leader in water management and to reap the economic benefits of not only addressing the state´s issues, but of selling that expertise to others.

Study may spawn ways to genetically alter and control red seaweeds

Half of the marine life in the world's oceans depends on the enrichment of phytoplankton by dissolved iron, just as plants at the base of the food chain on land need nutrients to help them grow.

Of the 200 U.S.-flag shipping companies that were formed after World War I, only one remains in operation today.

A report from the San Francisco Federal Reserve underscores how climate shifts create big investment and economic risks

A new report finds that mangroves provide valuable flood risk benefits and play a critical role in protecting coastal communities in Florida.

One proposed method for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere—and reducing the risk of climate change—is to capture carbon from the air or prevent it from getting there in the first place. However, research from Mark Z. Jacobson at Stanford University, published in Energy and Environmental Science, suggests that carbon capture technologies can cause more harm than good.

In a few years’ time, offshore wind could power the slot machines at this beachside gambling town.

The largest synthesis of important marine areas conducted to date reveals that a large portion of Earth's oceans are considered important and are good candidates for protection. A first of its kind, the study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team of researchers including Ellen Pikitch, Ph.D., and Christine Santora of Stony Brook University and Dr. Natasha Gownaris, a Ph.D. graduate of Stony Brook University. The team examined 10 diverse and internationally recognized maps depicting global marine priority areas. The findings, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, may serve as a roadmap for the goal set by the United Nations to create 10 percent of the ocean as marine protected areas (MPAs) by 2020.

The recent Typhoon Hagibis—the most powerful storm to hit Japan since 1958—caused massive destruction. The reported death toll as of October 22 has climbed to 80, with another 398 injured and 11 people still missing. Tens of thousands of homes were flooded, damaged, or without power after torrential rain and powerful winds resulted in tornadoes, widespread mudslides, and overflowing rivers. In addition, an earthquake in the northeastern area of Japan (Chiba-Tokyo) compounded landslides and flooding. Insured losses throughout the country are estimated at more than US$10 billion.

Sand on beach may look all the same, but it's not. Researchers have found that the material has a "sound," one that can be linked to its home. Find the source, and we can learn more about how it moves around the world.

The federal government faces a dilemma over how to prepare the American coast for the rising seas and supercharged storms of a warming climate. These twin threats cost the government billions in disaster aid, while endangering communities, critical infrastructure and priceless ecosystems.

WASHINGTON — A secret agreement has allowed the nation’s homebuilders to make it much easier to block changes to building codes that would require new houses to better address climate change, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

Fish may be more tolerant than previously thought to periods of low oxygen in the oceans, new research shows.

It is becoming increasingly possible that sea-level rise of a meter or more will occur this century. You might expect this threat to preoccupy coastal homeowners. But many deny the need to act, for fear their property values will fall.

Advancing technology in ocean-based sensors has become crucial to weather forecasting and understanding the environment. But those things generating all the data need electrical power. Now a prize competition by the Energy Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration seeks new ways to power ocean observing platforms. Alejandro Moreno is director of water powered technologies at DOE. He talked with Federal Drive with Tom Temin about the sorts of technologies the agencies are looking for, and why a prize challenge seemed like a good fit.

If you arrived at your dream beach only to find it littered with plastic and other rubbish, would you stay and play — or be on your way?