Climate Change and the Coast Talk

Many people are aware that climate change is causing sea level rise, which may have a major effect on the shape of our coast.  But there are other ways in which climate change will change life on the coast.  This will be the topic when climatologist John Stevenson discusses Climate Change and the Coast, as he kicks off the 2016 season of the Listening to the Land series on Wednesday, Jan. 20.  The free public event takes place at 6 p.m. at the Seaside Public Library (1131 Broadway St.).

A warming climate is already affecting life in Oregon, Stevenson says. Higher seas will mean changes to the shoreline and damage to coastal structures. The impacts are being felt upstream too, in the watersheds that support our fisheries.

Stevenson is a regional extension climate specialist with Oregon Sea Grant and the Climate Impacts Research Consortium, where he facilitates community adaptation to climate-driven changes in coastal hazards, water resources, and forest disturbance. He previously worked with Ecotrust to map critical fishing grounds off the Oregon coast in a process to site renewable ocean energy. Before moving to Oregon, he worked on fisheries and ocean planning issues for NOAA in Silver Springs, Maryland. Stevenson has a master’s degree in marine resource management from Oregon State University.

His talk won’t focus just on impending disaster.  Stevenson will focus on management choices we can make now that will affect how climate change plays out on the coast.

Listening to the Land is a monthly winter speaker series offered January through May and presented by North Coast Land Conservancy and the Necanicum Watershed Council in partnership with the Seaside Public Library.