King Tide Shows What Climate Change Has In Store
This is about Seattle's Alki Beach and a formerly unusual high tide. The introduction retells Tlingit and Haida stories about tides.
King Tide Shows What Climate Change Has In Store
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Today, high tides regularly reach 10 feet. With 3 feet of sea-level rise, that puts the water at 13 feet. And it would put king tides somewhere around 16 feet—levels never seen by a Seattle that’s very much dependent on, and at the mercy of, Puget Sound.
For those hoping to inform the public about the effects of climate change, king tides, then, are a gift. They have become an important teaching tool on what rising sea levels will mean for the region—a seeing-is-believing approach to climate-change education.
“You can hear the sea-level rise figures, but if you can see what things look like, see the sidewalk where you usually walk is under water, then that will have more of an impact,” says Jamie Mooney of Washington Sea Grant, which is coordinating king-tide education efforts across the state. The central component of these efforts is to collect citizens’ photos of king tides from all across western Washington, which provide the eye-catching visuals Mooney talks about.
Alki Beach has proven a perfect model for showing what a higher sea level might look like for Seattle. Photos from December, when tides reached past 13 feet, show the boardwalk, usually given over to joggers, completely submerged. A similar scene should be on display this week.
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http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/956392-129/king-tide-shows-what-climate-change
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