Editor 99 | August 14, 2021
Warming temperatures, rising sea levels and more extreme weather events are signs of global warming.
“Climate change is here. We can’t really stop it right now, but there are many ways we can learn to live with it and hopefully reverse some of the effects, ”says Rebecca Shoer, Stone Living Lab’s Engagement Manager.
Stone Living Lab is a collaborative partnership of local organizations, including the City of Boston, the University of Massachusetts Boston School for the Environment, Boston Harbor Now, Boston National Parks, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. , and James M. and Cathleen. D. Stone foundation. They have teamed up to help Boston find nature-based solutions to adapt to climate change by using the Boston Harbor and Harbor Islands.
“It is a really unique laboratory. We call it a living laboratory. There is not just a lab in the corner of the building where we have investigators working in secret. We are using the entire port as our laboratory, ”Shoer tells WBZ-TV.
What is truly unique about this lab is that the researchers are not just scientists.
“We need educators, we need scientists, we need community members, we need artists, we need all kinds of people because we need some really creative solutions and we need them pretty quickly,” Shoer exclaims.
Boston’s sea level is expected to rise more than two feet over the next 50 years, and there are several urban beaches around the city that have already undergone changes.
“So we are just beginning to implement some programs. One of our first opportunities is our community science project called Beach Profiles, ”Shoer says.
Community science is a great way to engage the public in collecting valuable data, as it will be in Carson Beach this summer. That’s just one of the sites that Stone Living Lab will use for its beach profiling project.
“Community science is really that. It is the community that does authentic science, ”says Professor Bob Chen, Acting Dean of the School for the Environment at UMass Boston and Co-Principal Investigator of the Stone Living Lab Project.
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