I also played around with the sea level rise and vulnerability for the Southern US border from Texas to here in Florida on the NOAA Map https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/#/layer/vul-soc/0/-10191061.428796653/3580428.470954998/7/satellite/40/1/2050/interHigh/midAccretion

I liked seeing a spot that was actually in FFXCO, so I can see myself using this tool when we chat about sea level rise affecting the Potomac River. And the vulnerability index on the NOAA tool was good to see looked similar to FFX's vulnerability index.

As sea level rises, Steve said he expects intertidal communities to shift up the shoreline, with organisms lower along the intertidal gradient moving higher. In areas bordered by sea cliffs, a ‘crunch’ may occur where organisms run out of shoreline in which to shift, potentially reducing the abundance and diversity of those intertidal communities.

However, increased erosion due to climate change may increase the amount of suitable habitat for rocky intertidal communities in other island locations, potentially allowing those communities to expand. Steve leads our long term monitoring efforts for rocky intertidal habitats, and he and his team are actively monitoring the effects of climate changes on intertidal communities to learn more about how the intertidal will respond to these forces.

Specifically, something that came up in the interview that didn't make it to the webpage was the impact on rockweed. Rockweed is an algae that is a foundational species for intertidal ecosystems, providing food and habitat for many other species. Santa Ana winds (warm east winds that make their way out to the islands periodically) have a negative impact on rockweed abundance. Some climate models are predicting more frequent santa anas, while others are less conclusive.

I also loved the Images of Change and all the different ways to view the data. In a short amount of time, I experienced hurricane damage, ice melt, tornado paths, dried-up lakes, and a very snowy California.

Facility Context: We are an 86-acre urban nature center in New Orleans East (a marginalized part of town) dedicated to preserving native habitats and educating the public on the wonders of the natural world. It should be noted that our structures and most of our forest, along with nearly everything else in our immediate geographic area, was decimated by the storm surge and subsequent storm protection system failure following Hurricane Katrina on 29AUG05. We were rebuilt using FEMA funding but that process took over a decade when the facility was entirely closed to the public.

James is a Gen-Z’er from a conservative family with a mass media based knowledge of GCC. He stays away from conversations on the topic because he believes there is too much hate and “vitriol” on “both sides”. His take on GCC's effects at our facility are (short-range) observational and based on living in the area for two decades.

James believes there has been a “blow up in invasive species within the last decade” as well as a significant shift in the species composition of our waterways which he recognises as crucial to many ways of life in southeast Louisiana. While this summer is something more akin to ‘normal’, we had exceptional drought and heat last summer which James believes caused a “lot of death”. Whereas cyclical changes are viewed as normal, James believes there is “too much stress in the extremes”. The perceived outcome of this is we cannot give our visitors a “window to what natural habitat should look like” because GCC is responsible for creating “unnatural habitat”.

Hurricanes are never far from anyone’s mind here, especially this time of year. It’s no surprise that his belief is GCC and hurricane frequency are “intrinsically” connected. While severe weather events are certainly a lot to think about, there was no other recognition of potential threats beyond.

Interestingly, James believes our facility specifically has a comms plan regarding GCC. Everything he told me was material I had assembled in conjunction with our first foray into such messaging in conjunction with a planetarium program we began in June of this year. James acknowledges our larger parent organization has a well-conceived an hurricane plan and thinks the institute of which we are apart hasn’t yet gauged threat beyond that. We don't have a climate change plan or messaging, yet.

For mitigation, adaptation, and communications, James would like to see us educate the public in a way that way that we communicate there is a problem to be "solved" while clearly expressing the public themselves are not the problem. He thinks we should reduce waste and minimise energy consumption at the individual level and was not aware of the impact of larger-scale industrial and agricultural contributions. We are a very small team with a lot of land to steward, and James feels the aforementioned increase in invasive species as a direct result of GCC is a significant challenge to him in his new role as operations manager as we simply do not have the person power to be able to keep up most of the time.

James firmly believes we need to start at the level of our local community to reveal what sorts of climate change problems they are having locally. He advocates using local universities, especially LSU which is in Baton Rouge, about an hour away, to see how they are “formatting their messaging for the younger crowd”. He does not see any value in communicating science-based information, instead wanting to focus on a “solutions oriented five to ten year plan”. I found the “five to ten year” timeframe interesting because, to me, it implies we can “solve” climate change problems based solely on local input and in a short period of time.

Many of the informed population here in south Louisiana are aware of the Coastal Master Plan and Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. James was not. He indicated he would source peer reviewed papers from academic databases for climate science information, but earlier on indicated what he knows is near entirely from media reports and conversations among coworkers.

Ultimately, James believes we must work with schools to educate youth to keep climate change objective and help them understand this is the future of the “entire world”. New Orleans has long been accurately using the term resiliency and there is no doubt our nature center’s re-emergence from a severe weather destruction is a powerful message. James feels humans have “an extraordinary ability to adapt” and “hold dominion” which will result in “saving our home for ourselves.”

His closing statement was amazing: "How hospitable is this rock going to be?"

Overall Thoughts:

• Hurricane thinking is very deeply embedded in the consciousness of New Orleanians. There might not be much knowledge of sea level rise and extreme heat risk which are perhaps the other two most significant impacts of GCC in south Louisiana. Hurricanes are a lot of stress on their own, so how can we bring awareness to other risks without overburdening folks?

• Wanting to solve local problems for local people is certainly admirable but there was no mention of collaboration outside of our immediate area.

• Based on previous ad-hoc conversations, I know this interviewee’s responses were significantly different from those I might have heard from anyone else. They were more anthropocentric than the others might have been and while inclusivity and social justice should always be woven into what we do, I’m not sure how we can do that while staying on our basic mission which is habitats and education about those habitats… not solving specifically human problems.

A recurring topic in our discussion was the big, looming volcano on the horizon: Mount Rainier/Tahoma. We are heavily reliant on water in the PNW; what happens when there’s no more meltwater entering the sound? When there are no longer glaciers on the mountain?  

Through our discussion, we also realized that there’s a lot about our facility that we simply don’t know. For instance, how plans/strategies do our animal care staff have in place for continuing to care for animals that are sensitive to high heat? Will there be trouble sourcing food for some of our animals?  

We ended our chat with more questions than answers, but I plan to return to these interview questions in future team meetings.

That said, Mary Lynne says that others in our community also recognize that the frequent flooding that has occurred over the last 20 years could be a result of Climate Change. How many believe it's human caused is a different issue in our politically conservative community, but she thinks more people do understand that human behavior and industry has had an impact on global warming than might let on. Talking about climate change in relation to being human caused is not a subject we discuss around here. As Mary Lynne pointed out, we kinda know who is of a like mind so we don't need to discuss it with them while we avoid such conversations with others who we presume think differently.

Mary Lynne described her understanding of Climate Change as being inadequate to really explain to someone else. She has a general understanding that it's caused by all the Co2 from oil and gas emissions getting trapped in our atmosphere causing the overall temperature of the earth to rise which then causes the extreme weather patterns, the melting of polar ice caps and glaciers leading to sea level rise. Otherwise Mary Lynne feels like she doesn't really understand all the causes and ramifications.

We did talk about doing a program for the community on Climate Change and what that might look like. Would it be an indoor presentation with graphics and video using some of the NASA resources I am learning about, or a walking program down by the river with pictures I might show, or framed as a community discussion? If a community discussion, we might have to get approval or buy in by the Director of Parks and Rec and other city officials so as not to add to internal city conflicts. Any kind of program about climate change feels risky but necessary for both of us. Whatever we do, we don't want it to all be about doom and gloom. We want people to have more understanding but also feel empowered with simple action steps they can take and that's there's hope.

Our discussion first centered around ongoing and future threats to the Visitor Center. Albert Kahn was the architect of the Visitor Center and the Ford Assembly Plant next door. The Center was an oil house that delivered the oil from large tanks in the building through a tunnel. With King tides and other surges, the tunnel is often the source of water intrusion at the lower level, which houses our theater, classrooms, restrooms, and offices. Because we face the Bay, we also often deal with damage from the marine environment. Next to the Center is an empty lot polluted with many chemicals.

The Visitor Center, a place of historical significance, is well-placed to discuss climate change. Richmond, where the Center is located, was part of a complex challenge encompassing a large part of the world during WWII. Our Navy was severely damaged following the Pearl Harbor attack, and we didn't have a significant Army following WWI. However, that quickly changed as many Americans signed up to fight. Businesses pivoted to provide goods and services for the war; for example, just down the street from Rosie, a bathtub company built bombs. This historical context gives the Visitor Center a unique perspective on the societal changes brought about by the war.

Most of the positions that men had filled were now empty. Congress passed two pieces of legislation: equal pay for equal work and non-discrimination in military contracting jobs. Women and people of color answered the call. The whole country was on the move. Here in Richmond, women built 747 ships at these shipyards. Next door at the Ford Assembly Plant, the women equipped over 66,000 vehicles, including tanks and jeeps. Women duplicated these efforts across the country. When faced with an existential threat, everyone came together.

The curriculum for our Every Kid Outdoors combines the history of WWII and climate change with an emphasis on hope, using the success of WWII. Many of the children haven't heard of climate change. Rangers and Docents use this as an opportunity to explain basic science, such as how greenhouse gases raise the temperature of Earth. Rangers even use a blanket to cover a basketball.

Since this is the office I work in - a lot of the answers he gave were ones I resonated with. Like the local changes caused by climate change being shifting temps, "he's been here for 40 years, and he notices shifting seasons, it's slight and subtle but the spring is coming earlier and mild weather" and that the threat to our county's resources are "since the extremes are more extreme, manpower will be stretched thin. as well as a recent combo of recent drought combined with recent heat wave led to an algae bloom/growth on the Potomac River (author note - I didn't know this happened) was a threat because the whole region depends on the river for our fresh waste supply,.. even more noticeable to people in the area because the water treatment plant in Herndon had to treat the water extra hard, and when they dispelled the wastewater, it had an odor. Lots of complaints and lots of work to fix it!"

When I asked him about how our county's stories are affected by climate change, he mentioned that "climate change and the disruption it causes, amplifies the gap between wealth statuses..", something our office focuses on trying to mitigate.

And finally, at the end, his answer for what makes you hopeful: "People and societies can adapt, we can't change the climate on a dime, everything happening now has been set in motion for 100 years. People can adapt and play with the hand they've been dealt. There is a large human capacity for adaptation. We've been [unknowingly] making our living situation worse with 150 years of industrialization but hopefully we see the signs that we can adapt to it, designing buildings and processes for the changing climate. The same way that human transformations that have always happened, like photos of NYC streets in 1905 were full of horse drawn carts and in 1915 the same streets full of gas cars."