Tag: #sea-level-rise — 41 segments on Living on Earth

2026

• May 29, 2026: U.N. Affirms Climate Duty

  More than two-thirds of U.N. members recently voted in favor of a resolution affirming a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice that countries have a legal obligation to limit global warming. While this advisory opinion is not enforceable, it will likely be cited in lawsuits and appeals as a fact in the fight against climate disruption. Inside Climate News reporter Bob Berwyn speaks with Host Jenni Doering about the significance of the ruling and its U.N. adoption.

• May 08, 2026: Coastal Damage Cases Move to Federal Court

  In 2025, a Louisiana jury awarded Plaquemines Parish $745 million to repair environmental damages and land loss caused by oil giant Chevron and its subsidiary Texaco over many decades. But in April the US Supreme Court ruled 8 to 0 that the claims belong in federal court. In his majority opinion Justice Clarence Thomas found that Chevron’s work producing aviation fuel for the United States military during World War II made them federal agents beyond the reach of state courts. Blaine LeCesne, a distinguished professor and an associate dean at the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, explained the case with Living on Earth’s Paloma Beltran.

• February 27, 2026: Bonaire Residents Fight for Climate Justice

  The Dutch special municipality of Bonaire in the Caribbean is already experiencing dangerous heat and could see a fifth of its land disappear under rising seas by 2100. But the Netherlands is discriminating against these overseas citizens by failing to adequately reduce global warming emissions and develop adaptation plans to help them cope, according to a January 2026 Dutch court decision. Greenpeace Netherlands campaigner Eefje de Kroon worked with eight Bonaire residents to bring their case and joins Host Paloma Beltran.

2025

• December 12, 2025: The Unexpected"- Mallards Diving

  Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence, Mark Seth Lender provides a refuge for hungry ducks during hunting season. He also observed something remarkable: these “dabbling” ducks have learned to dive for the seed he offers them.

• November 14, 2025: Earth's Cryosphere On Thin Ice

  Scientists attending the UN climate talks in Brazil are highlighting the alarming state of the cryosphere, or the frozen part of Earth covered in ice, snow, and permafrost. A recent report warns that the European Alps, Rockies of the Western U.S. and Canada, Iceland, and Scandinavia would lose nearly all ice at 2°Celsius of warming – a threshold we’re currently on track to exceed. Glaciologist and climate scientist Miriam Jackson is the Eurasia and Nordic director of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative and joins Host Paloma Beltran to explain how the perilous state of glaciers endangers human civilization as the Earth warms.

• October 31, 2025: Climate Monster in the Caribbean

  Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to hit the Caribbean in modern times, left a wake of destruction in Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti that will take years to recover from. Jamaican climate physics professor Tannecia Stephenson describes the toll of this climate catastrophe, and meteorologist Ryan Truchelut of the consulting firm Weather Tiger joins Host Jenni Doering to explain how the storm grew so ferocious in the blink of a hurricane’s eye.

• September 26, 2025: Highway Reborn as Public Park

  The four-lane Great Highway used to run along the Pacific Ocean on the west side of San Francisco, where it was at risk of flooding from sea level rise. Now it’s been transformed into a park where visitors can bike, walk, skate, and play next to the water. Zach Lipton, a volunteer with the nonprofit Friends of Sunset Dunes, speaks with Host Jenni Doering about this highway’s transformation.

• August 01, 2025: Uprooted By Climate

  The relentless heating of the Earth is prompting people to move after climate-related catastrophes and amid more gradual changes. Journalist Abrahm Lustgarten is the author of On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America, and he talks with Host Steve Curwood about the northward migration he anticipates as Americans seek to escape punishing heat, fire, and drought.

• July 04, 2025: Tempered Hope for COP30

  Ten years since nations adopted the historic Paris Agreement, greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and hopes are dimming that we can meet the Paris goal of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius. As global leaders prepare to meet in Brazil for COP30, some say the entire UN climate agreement system is broken. Preliminary sessions recently took place in Bonn, Germany where longtime UN climate observer and Senior Associate at E3G Alden Meyer was in attendance, and he joins Host Aynsley O’Neill.

• May 30, 2025: After the Storm

  Living on Earth’s Explorer-in-Residence Mark Seth Lender is keenly aware of the risks of living right on the Connecticut coast as sea levels rise and hurricanes strengthen. But being that close to Nature, in all her ferociousness, sure does inspire.

• March 07, 2025: Gaps in Greenland Ice Sheet

  A new study shows that crevasses or cracks on the Greenland Ice Sheet are widening more rapidly than expected due to climate change, which may accelerate ice loss and global sea level rise. Lead author Dr. Thomas Chudley, glaciologist and associate professor at Durham University, talks with Host Aynsley O’Neill about the findings of this study and the implications for the future.

• February 21, 2025: Climate Disruption to Lose Trillions

  As costly climate disasters multiply around the planet, some financial experts are raising alarms that proceeding with business as usual without sharply reducing emissions could cut global GDP in half as soon as 2070. Dr. Tim Lenton is a Professor at the University of Exeter and a co-author of the 2025 Planetary Solvency Report, and he joins Host Jenni Doering to talk about how human civilization can steer towards a more stable future.

2024

• December 06, 2024: Climate Action at the World Court

  The world’s biggest climate case is underway at the International Court of Justice at the Hague in the Netherlands. Over 100 countries and intergovernmental organizations are arguing before a 15-judge panel, which could decide to issue an advisory opinion to clarify nations’ obligations to limit global warming emissions.

• October 25, 2024: Climate Disrupts Florida Politics

  In this election year, hurricanes are part of the political conversation about climate change in Florida, where communities are still cleaning up from Helene and Milton. Inside Climate News reporter Amy Green joins Host Paloma Beltran to discuss how Florida’s candidates for U.S. Senator and Republican Governor Ron DeSantis are addressing climate change in the wake of these massive storms.

• October 18, 2024: Journey to a Melting Glacier in Antarctica

  Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica holds enough ice that its melting could raise sea levels worldwide by 2 feet, but it’s so remote that until recently no one had ever approached where it meets the sea. Elizabeth Rush was a writer-in-residence on board the first research icebreaker to visit Thwaites and chronicles the journey in her book The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth. She joined Living on Earth Host Steve Curwood to share the experience of witnessing the glacier’s unraveling and the crucial data the scientists on board unearthed.

• October 18, 2024: Rising: Dispatches From The New American Shore

  As ocean levels rise, coastal communities contend with higher floods, stronger hurricanes, and saltwater intrusion. Some are even being forced to retreat to higher ground. From Louisiana to Staten Island to Pensacola, writer Elizabeth Rush set out to document the stories of people caught in these rising tides. Rush speaks with Host Steve Curwood about her new book, Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore.

• September 20, 2024: Beyond the Headlines

  Peter Dykstra, publisher of Environmental Health News and the Daily Climate, discusses some recent environmental stories that didn’t make US headlines with host Steve Curwood, including salt water fouling aquifers in Bangladesh and rare earth mining in Greenland.

• September 13, 2024: Flood Buyout Delays

  South Carolina is offering to help homeowners move away from areas plagued by flooding, but at one flagship buyout, only one in ten eligible residents chose to participate. Freelance journalist Daniel Shailer reported on this for Inside Climate News and explains to Living on Earth’s Jenni Doering why delays and predatory real estate practices are getting in the way of moving people out of harms’ way.

• July 12, 2024: Climate Action to Protect the Oceans

  Island nations are facing a flooded future and running out of time for the world to get its climate act together. So, they turned to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and in May 2024, a court found that countries do have legal obligations to stop greenhouse gases from polluting the world’s oceans. Katie Surma is a reporter with Inside Climate News and joins Host Jenni Doering to explain what the decision could mean for global climate action.

• May 24, 2024: The Drowning South

  Sea levels are rising everywhere due to climate change but not equally, and a recent Washington Post series called “The Drowning South” documents how the US southeast is experiencing an especially rapid rise. Journalist Chris Mooney joins Host Paloma Beltran to talk about how communities near Mobile, Alabama and St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana are being affected.

• March 22, 2024: Beyond the Headlines

  This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra and Host Aynsley O’Neill talk about a study that found safer lead levels in people living in federal public housing versus low-income private housing. Also, a $600,000 sand dune paid for by residents of Salisbury, MA washed away just days after being put in place. And in history they celebrate the birthday of French mathematician Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, who first proposed the existence of the greenhouse effect 200 years ago.

• February 09, 2024: Beyond the Headlines

  Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Steve Curwood with news of a reprieve -- for now -- for the drinking water supplies threatened by saltwater intrusion in coastal Louisiana. Also, a city in Germany is using the Rhine River as a giant source of heat and cooling potential on an industrial scale. And in history, they mark the birthday and exoneration of the Renaissance’s Galileo Galilei.

• February 02, 2024: Journey to a Melting Glacier in Antarctica

  Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica holds enough ice that its melting could raise sea levels worldwide by 2 feet, but it’s so remote that until recently no one had ever approached where it meets the sea. Elizabeth Rush was a writer-in-residence on board the first research icebreaker to visit Thwaites and she chronicles the journey in her new book The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth. She joined Living on Earth Host Steve Curwood to share the experience of witnessing the glacier’s unraveling and the crucial data the scientists on board unearthed.

• February 02, 2024: Rising: Dispatches From The New American Shore

  As ocean levels rise, coastal communities contend with higher floods, stronger hurricanes, and saltwater intrusion. Some are even being forced to retreat to higher ground. From Louisiana to Staten Island to Pensacola, writer Elizabeth Rush set out to document the stories of people caught in these rising tides. Rush speaks with Host Steve Curwood about her new book, Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore.

• January 12, 2024: Beyond the Headlines

  This week, Living on Earth Contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Paloma Beltran with a couple of stories about thoughtful dwelling design. In sweltering Egypt, buildings that incorporate centuries-old techniques help naturally keep inhabitants cool. And in Florida, residents in a new development designed with plentiful rooftop solar and energy efficiency pay nothing for electricity. In history they look back to when the Nixon administration stepped in to block a massive jetport that could have impacted the delicate Everglades ecosystem.

2023

• December 08, 2023: A Traveler's Guide to the End of the World

  1.2 degrees Celsius of global warming is already bringing dangerous climate impacts, and even if the world’s nations come together to keep temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees, we face a troubling and uncertain future. Writer David Gessner tries to grapple with this in his 2023 book, A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World: Tales of Fire, Wind, and Water, and he joins Host Jenni Doering to discuss a complicated relationship with hope amid a warming world.

• December 08, 2023: Australia's Climate Visas for Tuvalu

  The tiny island nation of Tuvalu faces inundation from rising seas, and a new treaty would allow a limited number of its citizens to study, work or live in Australia under a climate-related visa program. Abul Rizvi is the former Deputy Secretary of the Dept. of Immigration in Australia, and he joins Host Steve Curwood to explain the geopolitical implications of the deal.

• December 08, 2023: Poetic Plea for The Marshall Islands

  The Marshall Islands’ thousands of residents are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner describes life on the island and the threat from rising seas and performs her poem “Tell Them.”

• November 10, 2023: Sea Level Risk From Antarctica

  Antarctica’s ice shelves block glaciers from flowing into the sea but a recent study found that these ice shelves lost 8.3 trillion tons of ice in the last 25 years and are at risk releasing more glacier ice into the ocean. Richard Alley is a professor of Geosciences at Penn State University and joined Host Steve Curwood to shed light on what all this could mean for sea level rise and future ice loss in Antarctica.

• October 06, 2023: Salt Water in the Mississippi

  Amid widespread drought, salty water from the Gulf of Mexico is slowly seeping up the Mississippi River towards New Orleans, Louisiana. Halle Parker of public radio station WWNO explains the situation, how it's linked to climate change and possible solutions to Host Jenni Doering.

• September 15, 2023: Beyond the Headlines

  This week, Living on Earth contributor Peter Dykstra joins Host Jenni Doering to share how small island nations are making a case for planet-warming greenhouse gases to be considered ocean pollutants. Also, the EPA delays setting new standards for ozone, a major air pollutant. And in history, they look back to 1992 when the first African American woman went to space.

• August 11, 2023: The Great Displacement

  Climate change is already making some places across the country unlivable and seems likely to uproot millions of Americans in the coming decades. Journalist Jake Bittle collected the stories of people across the U.S. who have been driven out by fires, floods, droughts, and extreme heat. He joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss his new book, “The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration.”

• July 28, 2023: Beyond the Headlines

  In this week’s trip beyond the headlines, Living on Earth contributor Peter Dykstra joins host Steve Curwood to discuss the ways in which Iceland is repurposing the waste from fish catch, from skin grafts to pharmaceuticals. Then, the two take a look at the string of homes being built in North Carolina’s floodplains seemingly incentivized by the state’s flood buyout program. Finally, for history the pair discuss the life of Kenneth Bainbridge, who directed the first successful test of the atom bomb.

• July 21, 2023: Lowballing Sea Level Rise

  Many U.S. states and cities are underestimating how much the seas could rise even as they plan long term infrastructure, according to a study. Lead author Andra Garner of Rowan University joins Host Steve Curwood to explain why the moving target of climate impacts is confounding some planners.

• July 21, 2023: Finance and Climate Denial

  The financial sector isn’t taking likely climate impacts like moderate sea level rise into account when it calculates risks to assets, according to a report. That leaves retirement accounts and pensions vulnerable in a warming world. Inside Climate News reporter Dan Gearino joins Host Aynsley O’Neill to explain the findings.

• July 07, 2023: Antarctic Deep Ocean Currents Slowing

  Climate disruption is showing up in the slowing of deep ocean currents that transport heat, carbon, and nutrients around the globe. Researchers found that deep ocean circulation around Antarctica has slowed by almost a third in the last 30 years, faster than predicted by climate models. Physical oceanographer Kathy Gunn joins Host Steve Curwood to explain what’s happening and why it may spell trouble for the entire climate system.

• May 26, 2023: The Great Displacement

  Climate change is already making some places across the country unlivable and seems likely to uproot millions of Americans in the coming decades. Journalist Jake Bittle collected the stories of people across the U.S. who have been driven out by fires, floods, droughts, and extreme heat. He joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss his new book, “The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration.”

• May 26, 2023: ExxonMobil Sued in Guyana

  Guyana has one of the fastest growing economies on the planet as an offshore oil boom gets underway. But a potential spill could wipe out its fishing and ecotourism economy. So, a trial judge recently ruled that a major ExxonMobil crude oil project needs to provide an “unlimited guarantee” to cover the costs of such a spill. Journalist Amy Westervelt of the Critical Frequency podcast joins Host Jenni Doering to explain the ruling and Exxon’s oil development in Guyana.

• May 05, 2023: Oceans Hotter Than Ever

  The average sea surface temperature of the world’s oceans is rising as the planet warms and global temperatures recently hit all-time highs. Now the La Niña weather pattern of the last 3 years is shifting to an El Niño cycle, warming the oceans even more. Kevin Trenberth is a Distinguished Scholar at the National Center of Atmospheric Research and joins Host Bobby Bascomb to explain why the rapid warming of the oceans puts the whole Earth at risk.

• March 17, 2023: The Next Chapter of the Living on Earth Book Club

  In the coming decades millions of Americans will be uprooted by wildfires, floods, and rising seas in the largest migration in our country’s history. And many are already on the move. "The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration" by Jake Bittle compassionately tells their stories and uncovers how government and insurance policies are shaping who rebuilds and who retreats. Tune in on March 23rd for the next Living on Earth Book Club event – live with Jake Bittle.

• March 10, 2023: Beyond the Headlines

  Host Steve Curwood and Living on Earth contributor Peter Dykstra look beyond the headlines to a United Nations ocean biodiversity protection treaty, along with the newly designated Chilean Tictoc marine park for whales. Then, the pair discuss Antarctica's diminishing sea ice, before looking back to the historic resignation of EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch-Burford.

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