Our Coastal Climate Online Educational Series
The Environmental Action Committee of West Marin’s (EAC) nonprofit mission and values focus on protecting and sustaining the unique lands, waters, and biodiversity of West Marin through advocacy, education and engagement opportunities.
The climate crisis presents an immediate need for action. Addressing the environmental hazards associated with the impacts of a changing climate and building community resilience for Marin’s coastal communities is at the forefront of our work. These are complicated issues and there is a need for additional public outreach and education for our communities as we collectively make decisions that have lasting impacts for a generation.
We invite you to join us for our series of educational webinars titled, Our Coastal Climate, that are designed to dive deep into the local impacts of our changing climate, so together we can act for our future.
November Webinar:
Our Coastal Climate: Rising Waters in West Marin
DATE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020
TIME: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
FORMAT: ZOOM MEETING
Join us for our first free brown bag lunch exploring Our Coastal Climate: Rising Waters in West Marin. In this online meeting, we will explore rising sea levels, emergent groundwater, and ways to build coastal resilience through local action and planning.
Featuring Guest Speakers:
Dr. Charles Lester, Director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center in the Marine Science Institute at University of California Santa Barbara
The passage of California's Proposition 20 Coastal Initiative in 1972 launched perhaps the greatest coastal protection experiment ever. California has since become an international leader in coastal management, with a vision to protect the coast for present and future generations while providing for its sustainable development. By most accounts, California's coastal protection effort has been a huge success. Yet today, the state faces incredible challenges from climate change, including accelerating flooding, erosion and long-term sea-level rise. Californians have started asking how they can adapt to these looming changes, but they are confronting a more fundamental question about the resilience of the coast itself: How can communities reduce the growing coastal hazard risks of climate change while still protecting the people’s broader interests in the coast, including the public beaches and diverse ecosystems that are so integral to California's economic, social and cultural identity? Dr. Charles Lester, former Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission and Director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center at the Marine Science Institute at UCSB will reflect on this question, and discuss some of the core coastal challenges facing the state and local communities.
Dr. Kevin M. Befus, Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences at University of Arkansas, and Dr. Patrick Barnard, Research Director for the Climate Impacts and Coastal Processes Team, United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Learn how the USGS CoSMoS-Groundwater (GW) team used numerical models to forecast how coastal water tables may rise with higher sea levels to understand the potential for sea-level rise to cause groundwater flooding and shoaling along California’s coastline. Learn more including reading the team’s recently published paper and corresponding press.
