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An award-winning scientist discusses the threat of hurricanes and sea level rise to our coasts using lessons from a nineteenth century disaster in Louisiana.
Travels From: Tampa, FL
Areas of expertise: Coastal geology, oceanography, storms and hurricanes
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About the speaker:
Abby Sallenger is an oceanographer who received his B.A. in Geology and Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of Virginia. He is the former Chief Scientist of the U.S. Geological Survey's Center for Coastal Geology and presently leads the USGS storm impact research group, investigating how the coast changes during extreme storms. Abby and his book Island in a Storm have been featured in the New York Times and NPR's Morning Edition.
In 2007, Abby received the "Shoemaker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Communications" that "honors a USGS scientist who demonstrates great skill in presenting complex concepts to non-technical audiences. In 2009, he received a "Special Award in Oceanography" from the 2009 National Hurricane Conference "for revolutionizing the study of hurricane impacts."
As an undergraduate at U.Va., Abby was a student athlete, playing intercollegiate football. He and his wife live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.
Sallenger Speech Topics:
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Hurricanes, Rising Seas, and our Vanishing Coasts: Lessons from a Nineteenth Century Disaster What can we learn from a nineteenth century disaster about problems faced along U.S. coasts today? Island in a Storm is about a hurricane that swept across a Louisiana barrier island, killing half the people there. It's a true story of the sea rising relative to the land—and the land changing in ways that made the island, and the people who lived there, vulnerable to a great storm. It's about the people who faced that hurricane, and how they came into harm's way by seemingly disparate, sometimes odd intersections of science, culture, disease, and agriculture. And it's about the survivors who concluded that the island was too hazardous for permanent settlement and decided not to rebuild their community nor to implement plans to expand it into one of the country's largest resorts.
Since that time, the overwhelming response to the devastation of seafront communities has been to do what the survivors of the early hurricane did not—rebuild them bigger, more elaborately, often in extremely exposed and hazardous locations. Too often this recovery has fueled the next disaster, then the next. In the end, Island in a Storm is about an island dying and what this means for the world's barrier islands in a warmer world. ::
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Island in a Storm