Sea level rise, from the courtroom to the foundation.
Climate Monitor covers sea level rise in two ways, setting youth climate lawsuits beside plain talk about how ocean forces act on coastal buildings. Its court coverage relies on primary sources, including a quoted appellate dissent, case names and the plaintiffs' own words, and Mitch Chester signs off the episodes by name.
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Climate Monitor treats sea level rise as two problems at once: a legal question about who answers for it, and a physical question about what the ocean does to everything built along its edge. Both get serious attention. The court coverage relies heavily on primary sources. 'The Most Powerful Dissent...Juliana v. United States' is dated January 19, 2020, two days after the Ninth Circuit issued its long anticipated decision in a case first filed in the District of Oregon in 2015. The episode quotes the dissent directly, including a passage on a rise of approximately 20 feet taking Miami and New Orleans, and the argument that irreversibility is what sets this harm apart. A plaintiffs' expert quoted in that dissent warns that a warmed atmosphere will keep heating the ocean for centuries. The narration is plainly on the plaintiffs' side. It calls the government's resistance ferocious and the plaintiffs' efforts common-sense and scientifically honest. A second legal thread stays in Florida. 'Florida Youth Explain Their Reasons for Suing the State of Florida in their Significant Climate Change Litigation' presents an excerpt from a January 8, 2020 panel at Florida State University's College of Law in Tallahassee. There, four of the seven young people suing the state speak for themselves. One argues that Florida has failed its duty under the state constitution and public trust doctrines. The same speaker names Miami-Dade, Miami Beach, Monroe County and Surfside as places that have declared climate emergencies, and says the state has done little to nothing to help. Hearing the plaintiffs themselves makes the lawsuit about people, not just a case name. The engineering side is just as concrete. In 'Hydrodynamic Forces and Coastal Buildings', South Florida consultant Ricardo Alvarez, whose work focuses on how the built environment holds up against hazards such as hurricanes, explains what keeps a beachfront high-rise standing. Foundations go through the sand to solid ground, and in Southeast Florida they also have to get past porous limestone to the harder rock below. The conversation also asks whether a building from the late 1970s has been taking on forces that build up over time, and the answer is yes. The episode presents all of this as practical guidance for engineers, architects, city planners and legislators planning for rising oceans and powerful hurricanes. Across both sides, the delivery is earnest and direct. Episodes end by pointing to the court opinion on the show notes page, the Our Children's Trust website or a publisher's site, and Mitch Chester signs off by name. For a first listen, the Juliana dissent episode is a good way into the legal side, and the Alvarez interview is the clearest way into the engineering side.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants to follow climate lawsuits through the rulings and the plaintiffs' own statements, and who is also curious how rising water and hurricanes put stress on coastal buildings.
What sets it apart: It puts youth climate litigation next to structural engineering, so a quoted appellate dissent and a conversation about foundations in porous limestone share one feed. Florida's coast comes up on both the legal and the engineering side.
Devoted to revealing climate and sea level rise challenges and sharing potential solutions. Now in Season 3.
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
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Climate Monitor covers a January 8, 2020 panel at Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee, where four youth plaintiffs in Reynolds et al.