More than 220 people (190 high school students from MAST @ FIU) showed up for a sea level rise rally at FIU’s Biscayne Bay Campus on Sept. 29 to launch an Oct. 9 effort to take high school and college students to Miami Beach to measure possible flood waters. In addition to the rally, students[…]

Eyes on the Rise team member, Robert Gutsche, Jr. spoke about the project at the Online News Association conference in Chicago on Sept. 26. Watch the panel here. ONA organized the Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education, which supports this student and community project surrounding journalism about sea level rise in South Florida.

Eyesontherise.org team members Juliet Pinto and Kate MacMillin received the Best Short Documentary award at the DocMiami ceremony Sept. 13 for their work that has led to great public discourse related to sea level rise in South Florida. Watch South Florida’s Rising Seas here!  

FIU’s Dr. Juliet Pinto Leads Tour of Water Systems in Post-Katrina New Orleans

By Juliet Pinto

Becoming resilient in the face of rising seas can take many forms, something those who cover impacts of changing climates understand well.

Dr. Juliet Pinto, who is an eyesontherise.org team member, participated in the 24^th annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists in New Orleans, La., Sept. 3-7, 2014, “Risk and Resiliency.”

Together with Jeff Adelson from the New Orleans Advocate, she co-led the “Risky Business” tour for journalists, academics and others, which focused on the $14.5 billion hurricane storm surge risk reduction system constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers that includes new pumps, levees and surge barriers.

Tour speakers from the Corps, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West as well as citizens and activists who lived through the storm highlighted the stark differences between the systems pre- and post-Katrina. The group viewed portions of the post-Katrina Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, designed by the Corps to keep at bay the storm surge that would otherwise come into New Orleans’ canal systems and waterways and flood the city and surrounding areas.

“We’re taking the fight to the storm, instead of letting the storm come to us,” Corps public affairs specialist, Rene Poche said. […]