A Different Way to Think About Flooding

Brooke Maslo

A map of flood zones in New Jersey shows a state covered in blue, revealing that many residents live in areas susceptible to flooding. “You feel quite vulnerable looking at that map,” says Rutgers ecologist Brooke Maslo, “For sure.” The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection uses federal dollars to buy out the homeowners of some of those flood-prone properties. …

Combatting Climate Change’s Effects With AI, Nanotechnology, and More

Alan Robock, a Distinguished Professor of climate science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers, has whittled the essentials of global warming down to 10 words: “It’s real. It’s us. It’s bad. We’re sure. There’s hope.” Jeff Arban, Rutgers

Alan Robock, a Distinguished Professor of climate science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers, has whittled the essentials of global warming down to 10 words: “It’s real. It’s us. It’s bad. We’re sure. There’s hope.” Those last two words — there’s hope — were the focus of a symposium that brought dozens of researchers to Rutgers last week to discuss …

On 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, New Jerseyans Believe in Climate Change, See It as a Threat, and Are Concerned About Its Effects

Point Pleasant New Jersey on Sunday October 28th, 2012. One day before Hurricane Sandy made landfall. Photo is 32 hours prior to the superstorm making landfall on the evening of October 29th. Photo: Shutterstock

Support for Various Climate-Related Policies, but Not How to Pay for It As the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy approaches and more than a year out from Hurricane Ida, the vast majority of New Jerseyan believe the Earth’s climate is changing, see it as a serious threat to the state and are concerned about the effects of changing climate conditions …

Reflections on Superstorm Sandy, 10 Years Later

Scenes like these were common along the Jersey shore in the wake of Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The borough of Mantoloking (pictured) was particularly hit hard. Photo: Matt Drews

Combating climate change is one of our greatest challenges. Rutgers experts break down the policies, infrastructure changes, social justice reforms and other work that will be necessary to weather the storm. Robert Kopp Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesCo-Director, University Office of Climate ActionPI, Rutgers Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub (MACH) Sandy caused extreme flooding across our region. In New …

Data-Visualization and Mapping Tools Help New Jersey Communities Plan for Climate Change

In many places in New Jersey (Such as little Egg Harbor, pictured), coastal communities directly back up to estuaries and shoreline, often with little protection from coastal storms. NJADAPT's plan is to help coastal communities predict and prepare for future storms and climate change related conditions. Photo: Matt Drews

The expanded suite of apps will assist decision-makers to predict and prepare for future events and conditions. New Jersey residents and planners alike have a new set of decision-support tools to help prepare their communities for climate change, thanks to a suite of data-visualization and mapping tools developed at Rutgers University’s New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center. The tools are part …

Rutgers Sandy Operation Helps Forecasters Predict Severe Storms, Saving Livelihood Worldwide

Travis Miles inspects a Rutgers ocean glider at the Marine Field Station on the Mullica Hill Estuary. Photo: Shelley Kusnetz

Researchers continue to advance hurricane science, leading to increased forecast accuracy and lead times. As Superstorm Sandy approached the New Jersey coastline, a single Rutgers glider deployed off Tuckerton by hurricane scientists at Rutgers University Center for Ocean Observing Leadership (RUCOOL), provided an ominous warning. The water mass known as the “Mid-Atlantic cold pool”– an area of cool water off the coast that traditionally …

How Rutgers Is Forging the Next Generation of Climate Change Problem Solvers

Larry Niles, an independent wildlife biologist, describes the ecosystem of the Cumberland County shore to Rutgers students, with the Delaware River behind him. The students are banding migratory shorebirds. Photo: Lisa Auermuller

Training program created in wake of Superstorm Sandy brings graduate students from varied disciplines together to solve real-world climate problems. As a child, Dan Blanco watched low-income neighborhoods in his native Chicago flood during storms while the more affluent enclaves did not. Now, he is pursuing a doctoral degree in atmospheric sciences at Rutgers so he can further explore – …

Living Shoreline Combats Coastal Erosion Caused by Sea Level Rise

Rutgers scientists teamed up with high school students to build a living shoreline, near the New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center in Cape May, that helps reduce wave energy as it comes onto the beach. Photo: Dena Seidel

Rutgers scientists and high school volunteers from Camden are using nature to mitigate the effects of coastal erosion in southern New Jersey. Together they built a living shoreline, near the New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center in Cape May, that uses marsh grasses and recycled oyster and clam shells. The shells, incorporated into modified concrete blocks called oyster castles, fit together like Legos to …

Rutgers Marine Field Station: On the Edge of Climate Change

RU Marine Field Station by Micah Seidel

As the facility marks its 50th anniversary, here is a look back at its history and how it developed into a crucial research station in New Jersey.   Rutgers Marine Field Station stands at the heart of where climate change is happening the fastest in the world, providing a unique and crucial window into the future for researchers.  A former U.S. Coast …

Nuclear War Would Cause a Global Famine and Kill Billions, Rutgers-Led Study Finds

Even a nuclear conflict between new nuclear states would decimate crop production and result in widespread starvation More than 5 billion people would die of hunger following a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, according to a global study led by Rutgers climate scientists that estimates post-conflict crop production. “The data tell us one thing: We must prevent a nuclear …