Climate Change and the Future of the Boston Coastline

When:
Monday, Nov 05, 2018 7:00p -
9:00p

Where:
Cambridge Innovation Center
1 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02142

EventScheduled OfflineEventAttendanceMode

Admission:
$15

Categories:
Social Good, Tech

Event website:
https://bostonclimatefuture.eventbrite.com

Doors open @ 6pm --Come early and meet other Long Now thinkers-- Presentations start @ 7pm


Obtain tickets here Meetup, or use our Eventbrite option: https://bostonclimatefuture.eventbrite.com [CIC members use your discount at Eventbrite; Students must use Eventbrite]


A Long Now Boston Community Conversation with
Kirk Bosma, P.E. Woods Hole Group and Paul Kirshen, Ph.D., UMass Boston


“Well I love that dirty water...Oh, Boston, you're my home”


Boston’s always had a special connection with its harbor, extending from its beginnings as a colonial port in 01630, through centuries of industrial activity, to its fairly recent cultural and economic reawakening. Land reclamation and waterfront construction projects have dramatically changed the region’s coastal landscape. Yet, still, the harbor protects. In the geologic scheme of things, not much has changed in 400 years.


The looming impact of global climate change paints a different picture. In a world of increasingly intense storms and melting ice packs, the tides and the storm surges are rising. This year Florence (13’ storm surge) and Mangkut (25’ storm surge) put the world on notice, while Boston had its own awakening with two record-breaking high water events, including the 15’ high water crest from the “bomb cyclone” of January 4. The need for long term thinking along our harbor and coastline has never been more urgent.


Join the Long Now Boston conversation with Paul Kirshen and Kirk Bosma, two of the region’s leading experts on climate change and coastal mitigation as they discuss looming risks to coastal communities. Poster Child projects like hurricane walls get lots of visibility, but the major study released in May concluded shore-based climate adaptation solutions are more effective than harbor-wide strategies for Boston. Radically decreasing greenhouse gas emissions could reduce the risks, but political willpower for that to happen soon is not forthcoming.


Among the topics we'll explore through a Long Now lens:


• Climate change forecasts and the implications for coastal communities.
• Key ways to assist coastal communities' planning for the future.
• Forecasts of what Boston and the New England coastline might look like in a century
• Anticipated civic + political affects: demographics, economics and social conditions


Join the conversation and be part of the solution.


$15 in advance // $20 at the door. Students w/ID admitted free.
Audience participation is encouraged.


The Long Now Boston Conversation Series hosts Paul Kirshen and Kirk F. Bosma to share their research on the effects of climate change on the region's coastline, and proposed risk mitigation measures.


Paul Kirshen, Ph.D., is a Professor in the School for the Environment at the UMass Boston and serves as the Academic Director of its Sustainable Solutions Lab. Paul has 30 years of experience in complex, interdisciplinary research related to water resources management, and climate variability and change. He holds Sc.B., MS, and PhD degrees in civil engineering with an emphasis on systems applications. His interest in climate change is focused on the integrated vulnerabilities of built, natural, social, and economic systems to climate change and sea level rise (SLR) and the development of adaptation strategies to these stresses.


Kirk F. Bosma, PE, is a Senior Coastal Engineer and Team Leader of the Coastal Sciences, Engineering & Planning team at Woods Hole Group.His expertise includes habitat restoration, shoreline protection, and climate change planning projects and specializes in applying numerical models to optimize engineering designs and reduce overall project life cycle costs. He also developed gray, green, and hybrid coastal engineering adaptations for fostering urban and rural resiliency in a cost-effective approach.


Cambridge Innovation Center is an in-kind sponsor of this Long Now Boston conversation. We are very grateful for their support.

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