Ahoy there!

So we can’t all be like the late great King Canute and take our thrones to the edge of the sea and forbid the waves to come any closer. His failure to take control of the ocean hasn’t prevented us trying to understand the oceans and from coming up with more imaginative (albeit more complicated) ways to force back the tides.

I want to use this blog to explore two inter-related topics:

1. The reasons behind sea level change. Whether it be through thermal expansion of sea water, changes in ice, tectonics, or isostasy, sea level has been changing ever since there was a sea level to change. I will investigate how these processes interact and affect sea level on global and regional scales.

2. How humans have reacted and adapted to mitigate the effects of the encroaching or retreating tides. At first glance, solutions range from the highly technical, such as predictive dams in the Netherlands, to the simple, let's all move house or indeed just sitting in the surf and pretending nothing is happening. I am going to examine the effectiveness of these solutions and consider how they might work in the longer term.

 

But I’ll leave that for next time, for now I will just leave you with Canute (currently dry) on the beach.



Canute likes to be beside the seaside....