Climate Change Conference

. . . this week one of the things I've been excited about checking out has been a great conference happening over at the Embarcadero Hyatt. You can find out more and check out some of the presentation materials for yourself on their website (click the box) and even see some of the sessions here. The ones that I've seen have been some pretty top notch work by folks mostly at the Fish & Wildlife Service, and the US Geological Survey, which stands to reason as they're the hosts of the event. And what gracious hosts they are, the conference is free so I'll not complain about the lack of coffee . . . I'll try and update a bit more as the day two progresses.

Well thank goodness for that . . .

The New Year is upon us and with it many changes, new challenges, opportunities and possibilities. While I'm really hoping to increase my efforts on Coastopolis during this year, indeed, while I'm really hoping to finally, actually, truly launch Coastopolis before May, things have been extremely busy and exciting. We now have a new President, and I think the image for me, that sums up the feeling of ebullience washing over the nation is this one . . .



. . . while I know one thrown shaka does not a great President make, it's still a nice image to kick off the new era with. More from Coastopolis soon!

Year End Wrap Up

Weeeeelllllll . . . so much has happened this year its hard to know where to start . . . Things in California have been keeping me busy enough that quite a bit of momentum was lost on Coastopolis, but hopefully that'll all change come the new year. We'll have a new President, we'll have a new administration, and we'll have a (re)newed belief that this country can be great and rise to meet the many challenges before it . . . but let's face it; we're also carrying quite a bit of baggage into the New Year too. While I'll leave it to other blogs to list the litany of problems and challenges that arose over 2008 lets just glance at the "coastal" year: the third most costly hurricane season on record, ongoing bad news with regards to sea level rise, more plastic in the ocean than is fathomable and to top it all off, no money.
I know this is a pretty grim way of looking at 2008. To be sure there's been quite a few wonderful things that have happened not only in the country & the world, but in the lives of millions everywhere. Still, It's the author's current mood to think, "2008, glad that's over with." I'm off to Mexico for the New Year celebrations. Hope that everybody's celebrations are joyous.

Happy New Year from everybody at Coastopolis!

Long time coming . . .

I know I've been rather neglectful of the blog and the site in these last couple of months. But personal and professional changes have kept me extremely busy on a number of projects, hence the silence. To be sure there's been no shortage of issues to cover. For one, hurricane season wreaked some major turmoil in the Gulf states, conditions which remain, though the mainstream media may have taken their eye off of those things for the time being. Environmental news as of late has ranged from the extremely terrifying to the extremely tragic, but the nation's focus is on the political & the economic. There's probably never been a time where I've felt more compelled to work on the site . . . and not had the time or energy to do so.

And thus begins another round of working on the site. While I have a bit of "time off" before my next project I'm going to make my best effort to catch up on some web-site maintenance and development. I'm hoping that there'll be some major progress in the next coming weeks, even though I'm wary of setting my ambitions too high given the amount of things on my plate these days. . .

Still, the painful disregard for the state of our natural systems is alarming, and it makes me want to roll up my sleeves even further.  Given the state of the political & economic discussion what's clear to me is that nobody is looking at our problems in a very holistic fashion.  The interventions that one group or another proposes are all efforts to maintain a system, the very design of which goes against the principles of nature.  Every time I hear one of the candidates mention "clean coal" or the "need" to ween ourselves off of foreign oil by increasing offshore drilling, my suspicions are reinforced.  To be sure, the problems in our economic world are global and frighteningly disruptive; but if our ability to regulate systems of our own design  are so limited, how much more vulnerable are we to changes in systems well beyond our control?  

Green, meet Blue.

One of the great opportunities about making a move out to the west coast, specifically the Bay Area, is the tremendous number of people and projects focused on sustainability and progressive approaches to how our natural and man-made systems interface. Last night I attended the tremendously popular San Francisco Green Drinks. My former Ecosa classmate Nick Aster & his operation Triple Pundit, co-sponsored yesterday's event and I had a great time; obviously because of the social atmosphere but also because of the multiple individuals that I met that are so passionate about making the world a more sustainable place. Though these pages are usually dedicated to more coastal issues & material, I feel that stronger links need to be made between the "green" & "blue" worlds. One of the reasons I began the site is to try and play a part in making that happen. I'm really looking forward to continuing the conversations started last night and hope to hear from folks soon. As I've mentioned before, collaboration and networking is what Coastopolis is all about so feel free to voice your opinions or comments to get the conversation rolling.

Day Three

Day Three at the conference was actually a nice respite from all the technical sessions that I had attended, but certainly no less productive. The closing plenary featured several speakers that gave their valued opinions on "Leadership" . . . what it means, how to be one, and above all how today's coastal leaders must face a whole host of issues not just on the technical side, but (perhaps more importantly) in how they deal with a constituency and stakeholders that may be considerably different from their own backgrounds and values.

• Angela Park - from Diversity Matters had some really great points about what leadership means in light of an increasingly "diverse" public. What does that mean anyway, "diverse"? Well, Angela brought up some really interesting issues about how we perceive said diversity, what it means in terms of membership to different groups, and how best to foster it and by doing so make our organizations or agencies more effective & more resilient.
  
• Amber Mace - gave a great summation of her pretty impressive career, and the risks she took and methods she used to include herself in the world of coastal planning and management. Now the ED of the California Ocean Science Trust, Amber's diligence, hard work and determination obviously paid off. I managed to speak with her for quite some time during dinner one night and she recommended, both then and during her talk, the book What Color is Your Parachute. Though I haven't managed to work through all the exercises there are a lot of great ideas and principles presented behind not only finding employment, but finding a field, industry and ultimately calling, that will not only pay the bills, but also fulfill you in somewhat deeper ways.
• Meg Caldwell - had some great accounts about how being in the right place at the right time, being tenacious and sometimes not knowing enough to know better, get you where you need to be. Its clear from her experience that Meg is an amazing & accomplished woman, but what was just as impressive to me was the air of casualness, humility and honesty that she showed behind the podium.
• Michael Orbach - This man, if you are familiar w/ the world of coastal & ocean issues/planning/management etc. needs no introduction. Dr. Orbach told us about some of the experiences that led him to various corners of the world, and to multiple offices, assignments and appointments during his impressive career. The thing I think I like the most about Orbach is his ability to approach this field from the perspective of the stake-holder, of always remembering that locals are experts too (sometimes moreso) and that each and every environment comes with its own unique set of circumstances and opportunities. He's an anthropologist so this isn't too surprising, and for that I'll forgive him for using South Padre Island as his slide in asking "Is coastal management working?".

The only other session I went to on Day Three was perhaps, for personal reasons, one of the most enjoyable. It had to deal almost exclusively with surfing in the context of resource users and as a means to engage communities in the coastal planning/management dialogue.

• Chad Nelsen from the Surfrider Foundation discussed his work on the economics of surfing particularly in one of California's (and the world) classic surf spots, Trestles. There has been a huge campaign to save the watershed that feeds the banks that create this wave and Chad's research at least proved that surfer's were capable of arguing for their resources on term$ better understood by developers and policy makers.
• Melissa Murphy from Oregon State University & Save the Waves Coalition took a similar approach to the wave in Mundaka, Spain which hosts hosted one of the stops on the Billabong Pro tour. Her work really illustrated how little many local communities understand what an incredible resource a world class wave is. Though the wave at Mundaka seems to be affected by a number of factors, there are definitely anthropomorphic reasons for its (now) fickle nature.
  
• Last but certainly not least was work presented by Paola Pijoan with Surfrider Ensenada. As a mexican, a surfer, a Surfrider member and someone that realizes what a tricky issue wave resources, development and tourism in Mexico can be, I was immediately interested in the work that she is doing and her approach to trying to develop a means by which wave resources can be developed and shared equitably and sustainably. Hopefully I'll be able to visit Ensenada sometime soon and see the "issues" first hand.

That was pretty much all for the conference. I know that it's taken me forever to finish writing about it but I'm glad that I finally have. Hope someone someday finds it useful.

Day Two

Climate Change Session:

• Tim Doherty from the San Francisco Bay Conservation & Development Commission, presented on what climate change means for the Bay Area.

• Dolan Eversole, from the University of HI discussed what sort of planning & policy initiatives are taking place in Hawai'i given the implications of sea level rise (powerpoint) (not good, the implications not the initiatives).

• the next presentation was interesting, in that it came from the tourism sector. David Edgell & Carolyn McCormick described what that sector's take on the climate change issue is. Given that a) it is such a large sector & b) so much of it takes place in areas that are susceptible to climate change, it was an interesting voice adding some diversity to the discussion.

• Meghan Higgins (big ups) had some very interesting points on what sea level rise means when it comes to the legal aspects of how we define the coast, ownership issues, etc. etc.
  

Land & Watershed session:

• I didn't stay long for this one because it was largely a lot of geology, some of which went clear over my head. However, the session was titled Starving the Pacific Coast Beaches of California, Oregon, and Washington, and there were (to me anyway) a couple of shockers provided by Orville Magoon & Co., namely that sand & gravel mining contribute to over half of the sediment loss on our western coastlines.
  

I then ran to the Effective Intergration* session:

• Danielle Bamford had a presentation on the use of Participatory GIS. The NOAA CSC Habitat Priority Mapper seems like a great tool and I'd be neat to see how it is used by future projects.
  
• Mara Dias (mp3 interview) shared the efforts of the Surfrider Foundation's Blue Water Task Force.
  

• Susan Lovelace discussed the differences in attitudes and knowledge between decision makers and stakeholders along coastal communities, and how this disconnect is making our jobs as coastal planners & managers that much more difficult.

Land & Watershed session (pt.2)

• Began with some interesting conclusions drawn by the research of Jeffrey Onsted on the effectiveness of the California Coastal Act.
  
• Wes Shaw gave a great presentation on his work within the Massachusetts "StormSmart Coasts" Program. I, unfortunately didn't manage to catch up with Wes during the conference but think everybody should take note of his presentation particularly his points about making material and resources interesting, useful and pertinent to stakeholders.