logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2024
35m 32s

Coastal Cities for the Future

WWNO & WRKF
About this episode

Most of the world's biggest cities are on the coast. As sea levels rise and storms worsen, how can we reimagine our coastal cities so that they can survive and thrive in the face of climate change? Today we talk with leaders across 3 continents about how they are fighting for the future of their cities. 

Thank you to our panelists:

Dr. Fola Dania - the Chief Resilience Officer of Lagos, Nigeria

Felipe Araujo - the Vice Mayor of Porto, Portugal, and City Counselor for Environment, Climate, Innovation, and Digital Transition

Casi Calloway -  The Director of Operations at the Southeast Sustainability Directors Network, and former Chief Resilience Officer of Mobile, Alabama

Janelle Kelman - former mayor of Sausalito, California, founder of Sea Rise Solutions and she's also currently running for Lieutenant Governor of California. 

And, to Sheetal Shah, program director of Urban Ocean Lab

Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

You can reach the Sea Change team at seachange@wwno.org.




Up next
Today
The Quiet Revolution Saving Fish and Fishermen
There was a time back in the 1980s when overfishing had decimated popular fish like red snapper and grouper in the Gulf. But then, there was a dramatic turning point, when both fish and fishermen in the Gulf were kind of saved. Today, we hear the remarkable success story of how u ... Show More
31m 59s
Sep 24
The Trojan Seahorse
Today, we’re bringing you a wild story. It’s about a covert ocean adventure from back in the Cold War days that inadvertently set off a brand new industry. And it’s an industry that’s been in the news a lot lately: deep-sea mining. Earlier this year, President Trump signed an exe ... Show More
32m 38s
Sep 10
The Next Big One: Are We Prepared?
Today, we bring you three stories exploring what it really takes to be ready for the next big storm. But at their core, these stories are about something deeper: the determination to keep living here on the Gulf Coast, and about the choices we’re making that will decide whether t ... Show More
37m 4s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2023
An ocean of opportunities
For World Ocean Day, Gaia Vince finds out how the planet’s seas could help us to generate clean power, capture CO2 and feed the world. Gaia is joined in the studio by science journalist and marine biologist Olive Heffernan. She dives into the controversy regarding the potential o ... Show More
33m 2s
Feb 2023
How can oceans help us capture carbon?
The ocean covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and can hold more than 150 times the amount of carbon dioxide as air. Around a quarter of CO2 emissions created by human activity each year is absorbed by them. From phytoplankton to whales to seagrass meadows, we explore how this ... Show More
28m 8s
Sep 2022
Sustainable Seafood? It's A Question Of Data
The last several decades have taken a toll on the oceans: Some fish populations are collapsing, plastic is an increasing problem and climate change is leading to coral bleaching — as well as a host of other problems. But marine biologist and World Economic Forum programme lead Al ... Show More
14m 7s
Nov 2023
Sold Out Presents: Sea Change
Sea Change is a podcast from WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana that dives deep into the environmental issues facing coastal communities on the Gulf Coast and beyond. When we talk about climate change, we hear one word all the time: resilient. We use it to talk about everything from our ... Show More
52m 26s
May 2023
Colin Hoag, "The Fluvial Imagination: On Lesotho’s Water-Export Economy" (U California Press, 2022)
Landlocked and surrounded by South Africa on all sides, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho became the world's first "water-exporting country" when it signed a 1986 treaty with its powerful neighbor. An elaborate network of dams and tunnels now carries water to Johannesburg, the subc ... Show More
59m 23s
Sep 2023
Why Sustainable Seafood Is A Data Problem
The last several decades have taken a toll on the oceans: Some fish populations are collapsing, plastic is an increasing problem and climate change is leading to coral bleaching — as well as a host of other problems. But marine biologist and World Economic Forum programme lead Al ... Show More
14m 7s
Jun 2023
Can seawater save Venice from flooding?
The medieval city of Venice is situated in the heart of a lagoon on the coast of northeast Italy. It was built on a large area of low-lying marshland. A system of wooden poles driven into the soft mud created an underwater forest. It still forms the foundations of the city we see ... Show More
23m 47s
Sep 2023
How will climate change affect where we can live?
Extreme weather is forcing communities to leave their homes and it's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. What can we do about it? In this edition of BBC Inside Science, Gaia Vince and her guests discuss what climate displacement means for people all over the world. We hear from D ... Show More
28m 6s
Aug 2023
Drowning coastal ecosystems
Global sea levels are rising more than 3mm per year under current climate conditions. At this rate we are due to hit an alarming 7mm rise per year by the end of the century. If this is not slowed, it could lead to the drowning of essential coastal ecosystems like mangroves and la ... Show More
28m 5s