#nottheend

The purpose of this blog has been to explore the risks that changing sea level poses coastal communities around the world. Over the course of it a number of topics, as well as regions, have been covered. As well as this, I feel that the blog benefited from the broad range of topics covered which spanned from physics and environmental science to politics and economics.

I quite enjoyed the freedom that I gave myself at the outset, not having a set agenda of topics, but instead enabling myself to blog about issues which I thought appropriate. My thoughts and opinions changed and developed over time thanks to engagement with both the academic and popular literature.

My use of the internet and social media has helped me keep up to date with issues relating to sea level which were being published and discussed around the world. Twitter helped me in two ways; firstly as a method to explore sea level issues which were trending and secondly, to publicise the blog to followers and the wider science community. It is thanks to this I feel that my blog received a large number of views from all over the world. I hope everyone who has read the blog thought it was both enjoyable and thought-provoking. Intriguingly, my most popular posts, BANNED - Sea Level Rise and "Everybodytalks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it", have been the ones which I have found most fascinating to research and discuss.

At this point I would also like to thank those who have commented on posts, asking probing questions and offering interesting information. I don’t think though that simply because the assigned blogging period is up that I will cease to update the blog and follow sea level issues which I have come to learn so much about. Although updates may be more dispersed, I still would encourage you to continue following the blog.

Should I stay or should I go?

You may remember the post Threat posed to islands in the Western Pacific in November which explored how climate change is affecting these low lying islands. If this region interests you I recommend taking a look at Kate Price’s recent blog post Rising Sea levels, Raising water issues in Tuvalu which, as the title suggests, puts the spotlight on Tuvalu. 

In this piece, she covers nicely the issues which the nation faces as a result of rising sea levels. Notably, discussion of the scarce freshwater resources available and potential solutions to the problem, as well as the issue of migration which could see Tuvaluans becoming ‘environmental refugees’. Unfortunately this, as you will discover, is becoming a very real option that many are having to face up to.