Experts share opinions on climate change, erosion in New Jersey

Carley Ens in the Daily Targum (Rutgers University): Concerns about climate change are increasing with the rising sea level, while erosion is becoming a serious problem on N.J. shores. Director and producer Ben Kalina screened his climate change documentary “Shored Up” at the Cook Campus Center yesterday with a panel of experts in marine sciences and climatology.

The Rutgers Climate Institute and Cook Campus Dean Barbara Turpin, among five others, coordinated to sponsor the event.  “Shored Up” discussed the impacts and risks of sea-level change on coastal communities from New Jersey to North Carolina.

Marjorie Kaplan, associate director of Rutgers Climate Institute, said the organization aims to educate and inform society about the causes and consequences of climate change. According to the film, about six inches of N.J. shoreline are lost every year to erosion. If sea levels continue to rise, changes could happen around the planet.

 “Thinking about ways in which we can address or adapt to sea-level rise in our own backyard is a dialogue that we thought would be important to the Rutgers community,” Kaplan said.

...Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, said the “danger zone” caused by rising sea levels is bound to get larger and more intense over time. According to the film, the Coastal Research Center at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey predicted a 39-inch sea-level rise in North Carolina by 2100, which could have serious economic consequences.

Humanity is in constant conflict between their desire to control nature and their inability to control it, Dillingham said....

A postcard from between 1930 and 1945 of the concrete ship Atlantus off the coast of Cape May, New Jersey