Warming temperatures due to human-produced carbon emissions are melting the world’s ice, leading to warmer seas, rising water levels, lower salinity, changing currents and more frequent and powerful storm systems that often strike and severely damage coastal areas. These conditions threaten to upset the balance of sea and estuary species on which fisheries depend. All of these factors create challenges for access for many North Carolina coastal residents whose jobs or food supply depend on what they catch. People dependent on the water, government officials and scientists are doing their best to adapt or encourage resilience. But the tides, they are a changing.
Changing Tides is a multi-story, in-depth series being published serially beginning Sept. 13, 2021. Changing Tides is made possible in part with support from the Pulitzer Center's Connected Coastlines initiative, a nationwide climate reporting initiative in U.S. coastal states.
