but soon, i might not be able to.

each year, these beaches get smaller and smaller due to sea level rise. crane beach in ipswich, massachusetts, is the most popular beach on the north shore, with more than 350,000 annual visitors. tragically, crane also takes the lead in dramatic beach erosion and flooding. crane beach has already lost 112 acres of shoreline — the beach my mom ran around as a child isn’t the same as the one i did. nearly 1,500 feet of sand and dunes have been lost since i was born in 2001. the beach has a serious flooding problem, and water sometimes covers part of argilla road, the only road to the beach. a stretch of the road is surrounded by the great salt marsh, which regularly floods as a result of sea level rise and storm surge. in 10 years, argilla road could be flooded on a daily basis, and in 50 years, the beach could become completely inaccessible. will my kids even be able to get to the beach that i grew up on?

these fishing towns that feed my spirit — ipswich, gloucester, rockport — all financially depend on beach tourism and family seafood businesses. what’s more, crane beach is one of the world’s most essential nesting sites for piping plovers, a threatened bird that was nearly hunted to extinction in the 1800s. crane beach is an invaluable stretch of sand that holds incredible importance to the financial stability of the town, to piping plovers, and to the hearts of everyone who visits year after year.

climate change, and the extreme weather events it exacerbates, are expected to increasingly disrupt towns all over the country. high-tide flooding due to sea level rise is exponentially increasing, threatening the coastal property market and town infrastructure. on the atlantic coastline, all it takes is a local sea level rise of 1.0 to 2.3 feet for high tide to turn into a major destructive flood. massachusetts north store’s state of the coast report makes it clear: “an increase in the level of the world’s oceans is due to global warming,” and sea level rise poses a serious threat to coasts with intensified storm surges, flooding, and damage of coastal zones.

the town of ipswich recently completed the first two phases of their project to raise argilla road by 18 inches, and to create natural banks on the sides of the road to protect the new elevation from erosion. the town is also working to restore the marsh that argilla road runs through. workers are performing “ditch remediation,” filling in the centuries-old unnatural ditches with natural salt marsh hay. these efforts will restore the natural flow of water in the marsh, hopefully reducing flooding from sea level rise and storm surge, and keeping argilla road dry. the trustees of crane beach work hard to organize around this issue, from partnering with environmental organizations to holding educational community events to creating a podcast to spread the message. this gives me hope for the town, and for the future of my beloved beach.

crane beach is a beautiful stretch of dunes and choppy new england waves that will freeze your toes off. people stood on that beach thousands and thousands of years ago. a seagull swooped down and snatched an entire sandwich out of my father’s hand on that beach six years ago. beyond its financial importance, crane beach is a gorgeous, invaluable spot in the universe. the waves can be relentless, but i will always choose to get back in the water. 

for now, it looks like crane’s next generation of baby plover birds will have a chance to spend their babyhood on the beach their mothers chose. but will my children have the same opportunity? it depends on the continued commitment of the town of ipswich to combat the effects of climate change.

volunteer researchers, more commonly known as “citizen scientists,” are everyday people who lack formal training in scientific fields yet contribute to scientific work. citizen scientists, now more than ever, are volunteering and collaborating with university research labs and government agencies, like the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa), by assisting with data collection and field research. 

shark scientists rely on the use of citizen scientists for data collection to monitor population growth and habitat shifts. local citizen scientists notice something’s amiss and contact the appropriate agencies and facilities. for example, californian citizen scientists noticed an influx of juvenile white sharks (carcharodon carcharias) in bays and along beaches within the last several years as their coastal waters warm. these juvenile shark populations were observed much further north than usual. 

salvador jorgensen, a research associate at the institute of marine sciences at the university of california, santa cruz, recently co-authored a paper in the journal scientific reports on this range shift of juvenile white sharks. the monterey bay aquarium led the research, and jorgensen and colleagues incorporated data that citizen scientists gathered.

juvenile white sharks are endotherms. they need to stay in water that is warm enough to maintain their core temperature but not too warm to elevate it, jorgensen explained.

“i kind of call it ‘the goldilocks zone’ for juvenile white sharks. it’s between 60 and 70 degrees [fahrenheit],” he said.

juvenile white sharks were mostly found in the warmer waters south of point conception, the headland where the pacific ocean and santa barbara channel meet, according to jorgensen. this is considered the point that separates southern and central california. however, during the 2014-2016 north pacific marine heatwave, juvenile white shark sightings reached unprecedented rates in central california. despite the marine heatwave ending five years ago, juvenile white sharks are still spotted along central california beaches.

kisei tanaka, a research marine biologist for noaa and lead author of the paper, said that the primary source of their data came from online open-access databases where people can use a website or phone application to take photos of a plant or animal for identification and upload the information to free public sources. scientists may even have the latitude and longitude of the species sighting if someone geotagged the uploaded photo with the exact location.

tanaka and jorgensen looked at the public access databanks along the california coast over the last five years to confirm the uptick of juvenile white shark sightings further north of point conception. then, marine scientists conducted their scientific survey expeditions looking for juvenile white sharks. the public access databanks utilized, like inaturalist, allowed the scientists to pinpoint which areas appeared to be the most juvenile white shark heavy, based on citizen scientist sightings.

“this [method of data collection] is very novel and effective in terms of capturing the change in the species distribution that weren’t affected by the scientific survey [our research team conducted] but may be able to be conducted at a much more local scale by more participants,” said tanaka.

 through the research described in their paper, the shark scientists determined that juvenile white sharks are moving poleward as their initial nursery ranges, like south of point conception, are too hot for their temperature-sensitive bodies. while rising ocean temperatures have been a concern to marine scientists for years now, citizen scientists quickly caught the attention of researchers with the influx of juvenile white sharks spotted further north and submitted to these databases.

“white shark is a very charismatic species that a lot of people pay close attention to, and they happen to be the one that responds to the climate very abruptly,” said tanaka.

tanaka discussed how sharks tend to capture the eye of the public which makes them one of the best species to use as a flagship for conservation initiatives regarding climate change. the international union for conservation of nature red list of threatened species categorizes white sharks as “vulnerable” and were last assessed in november 2018.

chelsea black is a ph.d. student studying marine conservation at the university of miami’s shark research and conservation program. as the shark satellite tracking coordinator, black monitors all their satellite-tagged sharks and verifying that the transmissions are accurate. she also works as the adopt a shark program manager. if someone donates the amount of a satellite tag, black assigns them their “adopted” shark. the donors can then name the shark and create an origin story of said name. the donors can then check up on their tagged shark at sharktagging.com.

before the covid-19 pandemic, black’s lab actively engaged the public to try more hands-on citizen science by having designated days where groups, such as corporate organizations or students on field trips, go on their boats and help with shark tagging. during these expeditions, citizen scientists get to measure sharks, attach a satellite tag to sharks, take a biological sample of a fin clip and write down field data. they even hold special expeditions where they take young girls out for tagging events with an all-female crew. the program is called females in the natural sciences (fins), and the goal is to excite young girls about shark science and demonstrate that science needn’t be a male-dominated field.

“it’s really cool seeing people come out on the boat with us who sometimes have never been on a boat, have never seen a shark. we will have people who are, you know, kind of afraid of sharks or are not sure what to expect, and by the end of the day, everyone is just like, ‘that was so amazing! i didn’t realize how calm sharks are.’ they’ll see us handling the sharks, obviously very safely, but without fear of the shark harming us,” said black.

for black, changing people’s opinions on sharks while contributing to scientific data collection is one of her favorite parts of working with the shark research and conservation program. she believes that informing and engaging the public in citizen science is crucial for shark conservation.

“we’re losing sharks at such a significant, you know, percentage each year that it will be in our lifetime that we will see species go extinct,” said 27-year-old black.

according to black, if you look at the data, there was a massive spike in shark killings after “jaws” came out in 1975. however, the rise in concern over sharks led to more shark research facilities. after over forty years of adverse publicity, white shark perceptions are finally changing for the better.

christopher lowe is a professor of marine biology, co-author of the juvenile white shark research paper, and has worked as the director of the shark lab at california state university, long beach since 1998. lowe said that for the first time in years, he feels hopeful about shark populations returning thanks to conservation initiatives. he feels that people are genuinely excited about protecting and celebrating sharks.

“i would argue that sharks are now as much a part of our [american] culture as baseball and the fourth of july,” said lowe.

lowe believes conservation citizen science is growing because people are interested in “reconnecting with nature.” according to lowe, some people want more than seeing a piece of nature at face value but to learn something about it.

white sharks are “apex predators;” they reside at the top of the food chain. they prey but are not preyed upon, and they remain a crucial part of oceanic ecosystem conservation by keeping all the other levels of the food web in check. if the apex predators disappeared, the ecosystem’s natural balance would fall. lesser predators would grow in population thus until their prey was depleted, leading to mass die-outs. by protecting white sharks, whole ecosystems are being sustained.

“if we are conserving ecosystems and we’re interested in health of the ocean, for example, we should be concerned with the health of all the species from the smallest, lowliness of phytoplankton all the way to its top predators,” said jorgensen.

with the popularity of a range of volunteer monitoring growing, marine scientists are feeling cautiously optimistic about the future. many shark species are returning to the american coasts. but for marine life, current conservation efforts may not be enough if the symptoms of climate change continue to worsen.

“it’s going to take the planet. it’s going to take everybody, and that is a bigger challenge,” said lowe.

the research says that if sharks, and marine ecosystems as a whole, want to persist, humans have to combat climate change. shark populations are shifting and reacting to people changing the planet explained jorgensen. as ocean temperatures continue to rise, it is up to humankind to save sharks from extinction.

“i was young,” perise remembered. “the noises, the movements, the fastness of the waves — all scared me.”

at the time, perise never would have imagined that he’d dedicate his life to protecting the ocean. a decade later, perise is now inspiring a movement in his hometown of buea, cameroon, to combat plastic pollution and protect the ocean.

growing up, perise noticed that his hometown had a lot of problems with plastic waste.

“i saw plastic pollution everywhere,” perise said.

plastic pollution is an issue prevalent all throughout cameroon, since cameroon as a whole has a poor waste management system, perise says. because his area lacks strong waste management, perise observes massive piles of plastic in his neighbors’ yards, on the side of the road, and even clogging waterways. 

wanting to make a change, perise’s first move was one that seemed daunting for a single person, but perhaps also the most practical: picking up the plastic waste in his community. perise hopped door to door in his community, collecting thousands of plastic bottles from the streets.

perise sends most of this plastic to his local plastic collection agency. in more recent years, though, he’s found more creative ways to repurpose the thousands of bottles he collects. through the parallel projects, last year perise brought 3,000 plastic bottles to douala, cameroon, to help construct an ecoboat with the nonprofit madiba and nature. mabida specializes in repurposing plastic bottles to create usable boats, donating them to local fishermen.

perise’s plastic collection efforts have not gone unnoticed in his community, and locals even call him the “plastic man.” perise’s goal is not just to collect plastic in his community, but also to educate his community on plastic pollution and build a mass movement to improve cameroon’s waste practices. for the past few years, perise has visited local schools to deliver presentations on plastic pollution and ocean conservation.

perise finds that education is a key link to making change in his community. 

“raise awareness in the communities, then they will want to put pressure on the governments,” perise said.

through education, perise has developed a mass movement of locals who want to see better waste management practices in their community. they understand that recycling and consuming less plastic are only small portions of the solution, as there needs to be structural changes made by governments as well.

“the plastic pollution crisis in cameroon is far from just a lot of people consuming plastic,” perise emphasized.

unexpectedly, perise’s audience has reached far beyond his local town of buea. several of perise’s photos of plastic pollution in cameroon have blown up on social media. perise believes that only minimal attention has been given to cameroon’s plastic pollution because photos of the crisis have not reached the internet. perise is vocal on social media about the environmental issues that his country faces, in hopes to draw more attention to cameroon and to inspire other young people to start similar movements in their communities.

perise is an active member of the environmental nonprofits greening forward and thinkocean, two organizations that seek to foster a movement of youth from around the world who are passionate about the environment. (in full disclosure, perise is also a friend and colleague of the author in the organization thinkocean.) perise’s story has become so inspiring that for the un world oceans day event this year, perise presented as a keynote speaker alongside some of the world’s most famous environmentalists like bill mckibben and jean-michel cousteau.

despite the global recognition and opportunities he recently has received, perise knows he wants to stick to environmental advocacy in cameroon in the long run. his goal in the future is to work more directly with the cameroonian government to ensure the structural changes in environmental and waste management that his country needs, such as creating more plastic recycling facilities and banning plastic packaging.

until then, perise plans to further expand his local grassroots movement against plastic pollution, in addition to inspiring young leaders around the world to the same.

perise’s rule-of-thumb is this: “if you’re passionate about something, connect with like-minded people around you.”

1. sun protection

sun protection is an essential element for any happy day in the sand. yet, those empty plastic sunscreen bottles really add up when you reapply every couple hours. fortunately, you don’t have to trade in your own health for the planet’s. instead, look for sunblock packaged in recyclable and re-purpose-able metal tins or glass jars. there are even some spf options with entirely biodegradable packaging, such as eir nyc’s surf mud pro.

2. snacks

after hours in the waves, you’re sure to work up an appetite. as you pack up snacks in preparation for your trip, phase out single-use plastic wrap and zipper bags for biodegradable food wrap or reusable zipper bags, perfect for sandwiches or summer produce. 

don’t worry about filling up your cooler with plastic water bottles. instead, pack your beverage of choice in a temperature regulating reusable bottle, like those from hydro flask or s’well, that keeps liquids cool as the weather gets hot.

3. swimwear

after a long winter, you might find that last summer’s swimsuit is worn out or doesn’t fit quite like it used to. if it’s time for a new suit, consider investing in one made from recycled nylon from patagonia or reformation or one made using discarded plastic bottles from madewell. take the time to find one that’s just right. a swimsuit that spends only one summer on your body will still spend centuries or more in a landfill. 

swimsuits aren’t the only piece of beach gear being made from repurposed materials. nomadix towels are made using recycled plastic bottles and are perfect for the beach, pool, or yoga.

4. summer reading

there’s nothing better than kicking back on the beach with a good book. if you’re in need of something to read, try stopping by your local library, thrift shop, or used book store before checking out on amazon. yes, it may require you to do a little searching, but you will cut out shipping waste and you might surprise yourself with a new favorite author!

a few people come over to the table and langston guides them through the second half of their surveys; she sifts through a 6-inch tall stack of papers trying to match people to their original surveys and periodically answering clarifying questions. langston’s surveys are designed to capture the change in people’s perspectives on marine debris before and after their participation in a beach clean-up event, such as this one hosted by the surfrider foundation on the north shore of oahu. the scale of the event is impressive, and i admire the ability of langston and other members of the surfrider foundation to organize the community, including numerous newcomers, to remove so much of the debris that was covering the beach just hours before.

as we stand there, langston explains the full process of her study to me. along with the surveys she distributes at beach cleaning events, she similarly conducts these surveys using only written educational materials presented to people who have not participated in these events. in these cases, she approaches beachgoers lounging beneath their umbrellas and asks them to participate in her simplified survey that includes an educational brochure for folks in lieu of actual beach clean-up participation.

for the final piece of her study, langston conducts the surveys online, distributing them via email blasts and newspaper articles. the goal here being to reach individuals who are not actively on a beach tangibly connected to the environment but are rather sitting in their offices or living rooms. the comparison between these three surveys, she points out, is useful for showing the disconnect that is growing between people and the natural world. this approach helps address the psycho-social side of the marine debris problem by utilizing a human-centric approach for understanding the perspectives of people exposed differentially to marine debris. langston’s research targets the environmental psychology associated with marine debris, an often understudied aspect, which guides our ability to conserve the environment and has world-changing potential.

the specific goal of this project is to address the growing lack of connection between people and place that has allowed the marine debris problem to become unmanageable. langston is hopeful that her study will present a potential solution towards curtailing these issues. bringing social science into the natural science laden world of environmental conservation is a growing field and, one that is gaining progressively more steam as people like langston prove that community engagement is a crucial piece to conservation narratives. it is not hard for people directly involved in conservation to recognize that we are losing sight of the world around us and getting sucked into an increasingly technological era of mass production.

“getting personally involved is a great way to improve one’s personal connection to the place and the issues,” langston says. “it can really open your eyes.”

langston’s novel approach to addressing marine debris does just that. it reaches people on an individual level through education and awareness to reduce their contributions to plastic pollution. this is an important distinction because, rather than fixating on simply removing plastics from the ocean (an issue not to be overlooked), she is actually trying to curtail the use of plastics and minimize the future impacts of this debris entering our waterways. this approach is also accessible to people from all walks of life, regardless of their education or background.

with looming environmental issues including climate change, the depletion of the earth’s natural resources, and mile-wide gyres of trash floating in our oceans, one of the simplest way for people to individually help improve the state of the environment is to implement changes in their own plastic consumption. avoiding single-use plastics like straws and take-out containers is an easy way to reduce personal inputs to marine debris; helping to spread awareness about marine debris issues, and voting for legislation that limits the use of plastics are other ways for people to help. perhaps even you, the reader, will now consider your individual choices, the impacts you have on the environment you love, and how even the smallest personal changes can have huge benefits.

the idea is to show and expose how easy it can be to go and clean. with even just a couple of people you would be amazed how much trash you can pick up on the coastlines. it would be amazing if other people were to see the video and be inspired to do it on their own, around the world.

life on the sun-drenched isles of south florida can be breathtaking. miami boasts some of the most vibrant coastlines in the nation; crystalline ocean waters, brimming with life and home to some of the most remarkable biomes on earth, lap gently against bone-white shores. for me, miami is the perfect oasis. if only i could forget one little problem: we. are. sinking.

the atlantic ocean is marching upon us. environmental protection agency reports state that from 1996 to 2011, we’ve lost 20 square miles of coastline to the sea. the very same glistening waters that we floridians so love to admire have begun a seemingly unstoppable tirade against us. so, what are we going to do? where do we turn? who is going to ‘save our souls’?

we can’t count on the powerful developers who run the place. they’re doing better business than ever. the miami coastline is booming; the city is dotted with engineers and construction crews who swarm their work-sites like ants. hundreds of steel and glass towers crowd the narrow strip of land, each one taller than the last and all of them vying to be closest to god.

we can’t count on our elected officials. even when faced with daily floods and the sobering aftermath of hurricane irma, florida governor rick scott — the man who banned the phrases “climate change” and “global warming” from his administration’s vocabulary — still refuses to deal with the watery grave that he’s condemning our city to.

as it turns out, we’re going to have to save ourselves. all over the state, university students and educators are answering the call-to-arms. they’re researching, collaborating with the city of miami beach and working towards implementing substantive solutions. essentially, they are fighting back.

they are fighting back not just against the incoming tides but also against the seemingly endless inaction from those who are supposed to be in power. florida international university’s sea level solutions center (slsc) is leading the charge. the center was founded in 2015 with the vision of creating and implementing sustainable solutions for sea level rising.

in under two years, slsc had netted together a vast web of collaborators, student scientists and project leaders who work towards making some real changes in south florida. year after year, slsc pushes out newer, more innovative research projects. from a project which outlines the potential dangers of increasing salinity on our natural water systems and drinking water, to a project that aims to stabilize and protect south florida archaeological sites with integrated ecosystem restoration.  these research projects are important because through them the slsc is not only able to gather usable data and implement plans, but they also get the opportunity to educate on the less obvious effects of rising sea levels.

slsc tries to work directly with the community, according to brad schonhoff, a fiu graduate turned project manager.

“[we are] bringing science to the table, and telling what the latest data is showing, informing current zoning and building projects on the data… getting them to implement resilience into the building,” schonhoff said.

slsc works hand in hand with regional bodies to make sure that the plans for this new generation of renovations will be based in science. for example a recent a $400 million dollar general obligation bond was voted on in miami. roughly 200 million dollars of that will be funneled into environmentally focused renovations to the city, this includes; water pumps, sewage restructuring and raised roads. in situations like these, slsc takes the research they’ve painstakingly gathered and presents it to those who are charged with rebuilding our cities.

while this collaboration between the city of miami beach and the university’s research center is enough to give us hope for the future, we know that water pumps and high-roads are not exactly permanent fixes. we cannot build high enough, nor can we pump back out enough water to escape the forward march of the rising seas.

dear readers, i’m going to level with you. we know there is only one real solution to this problem. and floridians are counting on you – yes, i mean you! – to help us out on this one.

although we’re facing the immediate effects of rising sea-levels, this is a truly international issue. if we, as a united international community, could come together to do something about the adverse effects of global warming, melting glaciers wouldn’t be flooding into our coastal cities.

miami needs you, all of you, to join the fight. for our sake. this is our s.o.s. call, because at the rate we’re going, this beautiful, blossoming, slice of tropical paradise won’t be here for much longer.

from florida, with love.

but to truly grasp the nature of the problem, i needed to float among huge piles of plastic, and try to see the coral formations while dodging pieces of garbage. i needed to pick up bottles, flip-flops, bags, toothbrushes, utensils, and plenty more plastic products from the beach, only to see even more of it wash up again the next morning.

this was a deeply affecting experience for me. beyond just the realization of how massive of a problem this is, i could see a direct link between my actions and the consequences.

many times in america we only find out about the effects of climate change on the news, in heartbreaking social media posts of polar bears floating away from the mainland on chunks of ice, or in documentaries. these are good for arousing sympathy for a few moments, but as soon as the next thing comes on the screen it slips from the mind. most of the visible environmental challenges are happening on such a large scale or so far away that it seems impossible to help anyway.

however, apathy became impossible for me when i saw, for example, hundreds of plastic forks floating in the water, because i used plastic forks for most of my meals. there was no evil corporation or greedy politician to blame for this pollution, just the habits of me and millions of ordinary people.

according to a plastic ocean’s website, over eight million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year. while there are certainly institutional reasons more of it is not recycled or responsibly disposed, a lot of this could be alleviated if people made a few simple changes to their plastic consumption. worldwide, more than one million plastic bags are used per minute. in 2014, the average american consumed 315 plastic water bottles. a lot of plastic usage is unavoidable in modern society, but getting reusable shopping bags and water bottles are affordable and easy solutions.

the point of this post is not to encourage everybody to get up and go to central america to see first-hand the effects of plastic consumption (although you should, it is an eye-opening experience), but to show that every person’s actions have a tangible effect on the environment. large-scale societal changes to save the environment may or may not be coming, but instead of waiting around helplessly for that, there are things we can and should start doing today.

as i grew older, i continued to visit beaches on the jersey shore with my school friends, including seaside heights, also known for its family boardwalk. when hurricane sandy struck the jersey shore in the fall of my sophomore year of college, i was shocked that a storm of that magnitude could strike so close to home.  it was a huge reality check, turning on the television and seeing the aftermath aerial images of seaside height’s jet star roller coaster sucked into the ocean waters. for me, hurricane sandy changed the meaning of the beach from a relaxing vacation setting to an area of vulnerability, similar to what the movie, jaws, did for swimmers on the beach.

when all of the rebuilding efforts were finally completed, sandy had left a deadly record and emotional hardships on all those living in or near the area.  one-hundred-and-fifty people lost their lives. about 650,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and it was the most expensive storm since hurricane katrina. it also was the first time i became seriously worried about the impacts of global climate change.

although single hurricanes are not directly caused by climate change, global warming can enhance the intensity of hurricanes through sea level rise and warmer temperatures. over the past century, sea levels have risen over a foot on the jersey shore, largely due to human induced climate change. additionally, the intensity, frequency, and duration of hurricanes have all increased since the early 1980s. these factors placed 40,000 more people in new jersey in sandy’s destructive path.

this is frightening not just for people living near the jersey shore but also for the sustainability of the shore itself. as much as i would like to chalk this up to a tragic anomaly, i am too concerned about the vitality of a place that holds some of my most cherished childhood memories to not be affected. sandy is a hard smack to our american consciousness, signaling to us that more must be done to protect these vulnerable beach areas.

most states have implemented adaptation measures, but this will not save us from the worst effects of global warming. by 2100, sandy-level flooding could occur once a year across the jersey shore. time is running out. we cannot just sit on the sidelines hoping for our team to win. we need to be actively engaged on curbing global co2 emissions. this will move us toward a virtuous goal of leaving the world in a healthier condition from where we left it, not one that threatens the people and places we most treasure. climate science has afforded us a great opportunity to preserve these areas and the meaning, such areas like the jersey shore, have had for many others and myself. let’s keep this possible for future generations.

eric osman is a senior at the george washington university majoring in journalism and mass communication with a minor in economics.