Category Archives: High Seas

A book about an orphan who sailsthe high seas in the 18th century is now for sale with 100 per cent of its proceeds this year going to the BC Childrens Hospital.

A book about an orphan who sailsthe high seas in the 18th century is now for sale with 100 per cent of its proceeds this year going to the BC Childrens Hospital.

Coquitlam author Trevor Atkins released his dbut historical novel, The Day the Pirates Went Mad, this spring and re-announced the charitable component this month.

His family has a tradition of donating to the hospital for sick kids: For years, theyve given part of the royalties from their educational games, published play and crafts.

Geared to middle school students, the story started as a short tale for his daughter, who is now in Grade 8, but it evolved to an educational vehicle in a book form.

At 244 pages plus a teachers guide, the self-published fictional tale follows young Emma Sharpe as she pens a letter to her parents in prison about her inaugural voyage to the Zanzibar Archipelago in the early 1700s.

The reader then sees her leave again with a progressive captain at the helm who takes Emma under his wing for the West Indies, where she and the cabin boy, Jack Randall, discover a cursed pirates treasure from a ship wreck.

Talk aboard their boatabout what to do with the jewels becomes heated.

The theme is greed and wealth versus the value of family and friends, Atkins told the Tri-City News. They find out that theyre rich because they have each other.

Atkins tapped Jon Merchant to illustrate the novel with chalk- and charcoal-like line drawings that would be similar to what Emma would create in her travel journal.

Available through Western Sky Books in Port Coquitlam, Kinder Books in New Westminster and amazon.ca, The Day the Pirates Went Mad is also part of the White Pines Collection at the Port Moody Public Library, which highlights the work of local authors.

Atkins said he plans to turn his pirates adventure into a trilogy.

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What Coquitlam author is giving his royalties to the BC Children's Hospital? - The Tri-City News

Ice melting endangers polar bears

As world leaders meet in Glasgow, Scotland, to try to ramp up efforts to curb climate change, the spectre of polar bears looms over them. The Arctic has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. Scientists and advocates say the threatened animals are "the canary in the cryosphere."

AP

Rachael Treharne, an Arctic ecologist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, returned to her Oxford, England home after nearly two weeks in Glasgow at Cop26, the United Nations 2021 climate change conference, that was still struggling to finish up last-minute negotiations over the weekend.

With the Arctic region warming at three times the global rate, profound and rapid change is evident everywhere from the Greenland ice sheet to the ocean ecosystem and the permafrost underlying much of the landmass. The testimony of indigenous people who live within the forests, deserts and tundra, as well as regions where snow and ice dominate, moved her.

But the grinding pace of negotiations on emissions, finance, and culpability, in the face of rapid, relentless changes being documented by researchers and the regions 5 million inhabitants, she found soul-crushing.

Its so slow and not on a scale of whats happening, said Treharne in a phone interview Friday.

Perhaps that sparse constituency helps to explain why, despite its potential to exert an outsized influence on carbon emissions, sea-level rise, and fisheries, the Arctic has largely been left out of climate change discussions and calculations on how to ease global warming.

A panel of Arctic researchers and policy analysts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Woodwell Climate Research Center made the case last week at the Glasgow conference for elevating the Arctic to the forefront of the climate discussion, asking for more research and greater incorporation of polar warming into climate change discussions and modeling.

It contains some of the most beautiful and wildest landscapes weve got left, said Treharne. It is the only place where the plants huddle together for warmth and it has such a rich and multifaceted cultural significance to the people who live across the Arctic.

There is a delicate balance to life at the extremes of what can be endured but the regions integrity is rapidly coming undone by human-induced climate change. Loss of reflectivity, as the regions sea ice and snow cover disappear, means more of the suns energy is absorbed into its seas and land. Plus changes in currents in the sea and atmosphere bring warmer water and air temperature to the Arctic which saw record-breaking 100-degree temperatures in some locations in August 2020.

While negotiators at Cop26 haggled over how to avoid a 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 F) increase in global mean temperature, WHOI glaciologist Sarah Das, speaking as one of the climate change conference panelists highlighting the dire outlook in the Arctic, pointed out that it only takes a few tenths of a degree difference in temperature to go from ice to water.

The ice across Greenland is extremely susceptible to these changes, said Das in an interview Friday.

While the disappearance of relatively small glaciers makes for front-page news, those are relatively small reservoirs of freshwater when compared with the Greenland ice sheet which covers an area roughly three times the size of Texas and is nearly three miles high at its thickest point.

Until recently, Greenlands ice cap was relatively stable. Ice and snow loss each summer was offset by winter accumulation. But in 1990, it became unbalanced, Das said. Wetter ice is darker ice and absorbs more of the suns heat amplifying the melt.

As a result, the Greenland ice sheet annual ice loss has accelerated from less than one gigatonne per year in the 1990s to 345 by 2011, according to a 2019 study by an international panel of polar scientists known as the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE). According to NASA, a gigatonne is the equivalent of 10,000 fully-loaded U.S. aircraft carriers.

The IMBIE study showed that Greenlands ice was disappearing at a rate close to that used by the international Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their high-end climate warming scenario.

Over the course of a single generation, weve gone from a stable Greenland ice sheet to one that is rapidly declining, said Das. We are running full speed towards the abyss.

While the earth enters an ice age every 100,000 years, Das said that warming due to human greenhouse gas emissions has removed the earth from that cycle.

We have exited that world entirely, she said. The disappearance of the Greenland ice sheet has sea-level consequences. A complete melt could lead to over 20 feet of sea rise, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Two hundred and thirty million people currently live less than a meter below current high tide lines; 190 million more will be imperiled under the low carbon emissions scenario and 630 million projected using the high emissions calculation.

Das said the heat increase in the atmosphere today may have already doomed Greenlands ice cap. The question now in reducing emissions is one of delaying it enough, hundreds, possibly thousands of years, to give us time to adjust.

A marked change in a system, now ongoing in the Arctic, is not what we want. Its not beneficial to us because of the Arctic role in weather, in holding frozen water and in freezing organics (like the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide bound up in permafrost) said Carin Ashjian, a biological oceanographer and chair of the biology department at WHOI. Ashjian also spoke on the Arctic panel at the Glasgow conference.

Theres so many ways it could impact us in lower latitudes and that system is changing markedly, she said in a phone interview after returning from Cop26. Philosophically, the idea of losing such a remarkable system is an incredible loss in and of itself.

Ashjians work is focused on ocean currents and temperature distribution impacts on the polar marine ecosystem, and she has been on over 60 Arctic cruises, including long-term studies on icebreakers that purposefully become icebound and drift with ice packs.

Quite often, the ice they sampled had survived through several winters. But with warming sea and air temperatures, the sea ice has been melting to a far greater extent and taking longer to freeze up again.

Increasingly, more of the Arctic is first-year sea ice, said Ashjian, which is not as hard as multiyear ice and more susceptible to melt.

What researchers have found is that warmer water marine species have expanded into the polar regions and the Arctic species moved even farther north. While that may be beneficial in some instances, like increased catches of salmon in northern Alaskan waters, it can also have profoundly negative consequences like the spread of algae that produce saxitoxins and domoic acid that can kill people and marine life. Ashjian said it is the rate of change in the Arctic that jeopardizes the resilience of ecosystems and those who depend on it.

If things change too much for local communities, they can run into all kinds of problems with food insecurity, she said. The animals they hunt and fish are also important to the culture of subsistence hunting communities.

As scientists, we can continue to try to understand the consequences of change on this ecosystem, and we dont understand it that well, said Ashjian. Its hard for scientific research, which moves at a very deliberate pace that can take years to complete a single study, to keep pace with the rapid changes the Arctic is undergoing.

It can take seven or more years for research to become policy, said Ashjian, But look at sea ice change and its a pretty steep slope there.

The Arctic is a hard and expensive place to do research and its the unknowns and the relative paucity of research that worries Treharne. While she largely works on climate models now, Treharnes earlier fieldwork looked at the impacts of warming on permafrost, the layer of frozen soil that doesnt thaw in summer and is present in 22% of the earths landmass.

Permafrost is both integral to the landscape and ecosystems, particularly in the Arctic Boreal Zone, but also contains massive amounts of organic matter from decomposed plant life. Treharne compared the permafrost to an enormous frozen compost heap that, when thawed, would begin releasing the organic gases of decomposition. A complete thaw could unleash twice the amount of carbon into the atmosphere contained in all the trees on the planet. If just 10% of the carbon dioxide in permafrost ends up in the atmosphere, Treharne said, it could add an amount equivalent to half the total emissions from humans over the past century, citing a recent IPCC special report on the cryosphere and oceans.

Plus, permafrost is the foundation of the Arctic boreal landscape. Thawing causes massive slumping of land, releases sedimentation into rivers, and affects groundwater flow and retention to the point where it can cause dramatic local ecosystem changes, creating wetlands and deserts.

Treharne said researchers expect to see the loss of between one-quarter to three-quarters of permafrost by the end of this century. But the full extent of the problem is not known because the permafrost region is vast and remote. With Arctic science still evolving, only a small percentage of carbon emission models use permafrost data, said Treharne. And none use estimates of the increasing number and breadth of arctic fires in permafrost thawing.

The last IPCC report did make a preliminary estimate of the impact of gradual thawing, said Treharne, but didnt account for rapid thaw or fires.

Today, were causing huge changes. How much worse it gets depends on us, said Treharne.

International climate change policy tends to focus on areas where the science is robust. Arctic scientific research is still evolving, but the risk of irreversible and potentially devastating impacts is too great to delay. Treharne said Arctic scientists, including researchers from WHOI and Woodwell, were advocating for an international cryosphere dialogue; an international structured discussion among scientists and policy makers around issues like permafrost and the Greenland ice sheet. They are hoping that will happen this summer.

We just want one chance to talk about it, said Treharne. We want to state the case, but its also the opportunity to explain the information you dont have and delegates can ask questions.

Follow Doug Fraser on Twitter:@dougfrasercct.

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Arctic researchers want to state their case before international climate change policy makers - Cape Cod Times

Rezo Kanovich likes companies that have zero analyst coverage. He explains why.

Rezo Kanovich of Artisan International Small-Mid Fund

Small-stock aficionados: Are you limiting your attention to the U.S. market? Then you are missing out, says Rezo Kanovich, manager of an immensely successful portfolio of smaller foreign companies. The universe of small stocks [abroad] is vast, bigger than the U.S. market by a factor of eight, he says. It creates a rich hunting ground for us.

Kanovich has captured his share of game. After six years managing a small-foreign-stock fund at Oppenheimer, which roundly beat competitors, he was lured away to Artisan Partners Asset Management, a Milwaukee-based firm that oversees $174 billion in mutual funds and separate accounts. In his three years in Artisans New York City office, the International Small-Mid Fund that he runs there has beaten its MSCI benchmark by 4.6 percentage points a year, Morningstar reports, and thats after a 1.3% expense ratio.

What does this fund buy? Shares of companies you have probably never heard of: Metso Outotec from Finland, Bloise Holding from Switzerland, Fortnox from Sweden, Howden Joinery Group from England and 124 others.

A third of these companies arent even in the indexes, which means you dont get them in an international index fund with 4,000 small-company stocks. Many have zero analysts covering them, and theres a reason for that. Explains Kanovich: Companies that [are] covered tend to be the ones looking for capital. The better companies tend to be self-financed and not particularly interested in investment banking relationships.

It takes work to assemble a portfolio of these gems. Unfortunately you cannot have Kanovich do the work for you at the moment. With $6 billion in assets, the fund was getting muscle-bound and Artisan closed it to most new investors last summer.

What to do? Try latching on to Kanovichs coattails. Look up his portfolio, which is published quarterly (the September 30 list is already out) and steal some ideas. You probably wont have the time or wherewithal to get the whole shebang, but you could copycat a few dozen positions. I illustrate the sort of stocks you will encounter in the arbitrary subset displayed in the table.

Of course, you will hear about additions and deletions a few months after the event, but this lag does only so much damage when the manager in question is a buy-and-hold guy. Kanovichs fund has a 28% turnover.

Most of the tens of thousands of stocks around the planet are of no interest to Kanovich, even if a surge in earnings makes one of them look cheap. A small commodity company in Western Australia will have its moment under the sun, but its not sustainable, he says. You have to have technology, brands or know-how. Otherwise you end up being a slave in some elses value chain.

The place to look, says Kanovich, is at the intersection of growth and change. Example: The supply lines of the fashion industry are changing, and that creates growth opportunities for innovators. His fund has stakes in Kornit Digital, an Israeli-American firm that makes machinery for quick-turnaround apparel, and Boohoo Group, a British company that sells fashion items online and doesnt have stockpiles of inventory the way department stores used to. These companies, he says, turn the economics of the textile industry upside-down. You dont have to bet on green polka-dot shirts in XL size being in demand.

Other sectors where he is finding small innovators: biotechnology, electric vehicles, building automation, business process automation.

Fortnox is a Swedish company that Kanovich describes as a blend of Intuits Quickbooks and Craigslist. Small businesses are addicted to its software. Altus Group, a Canadian firm, supplies data and software to the commercial real estate industry; Kanovich says that it has a customer retention rate higher than 100%, by which he means that customers not only stick around but also buy more products.

Metso Outotec, from Finland, looks a bit old-economy at first, but its metal-processing machinery, which includes recycling equipment, is suited to a world in which environmental demands are disrupting old processes.

And then theres fintech. The fund owns Bloise Holding, a property/casualty insurer in Basel that has been around since 1863 but has some novelty-seeking in its blood. Its online distribution is reminiscent of what upstart Lemonade is offering in the U.S., Kanovich says. Lemonade, something of a fad, trades at 30 times revenues, notwithstanding that its losing money. You get Bloise at 0.8 times revenue and 12 times earnings.

That value-rich insurance company is something of an outlier in the growth-tilted Kanovich portfolio. His average price/earnings ratio (calculated as a harmonic mean, which is the right way to do it), is 26. The average for the stocks in my table is 36.

If you are bold enough to go where few investors go, how do you place your bets? Until recently, buying weird stocks traded in Helsinki and Zurich would have been quite a challenge. Now its very doable. Big brokerage firms offer overseas-trading accounts that incorporate currency conversion with local trade execution. The negative is that fees are often stiff, a hit of 0.75% to 1% on just the currency.

Skip the big names and go to Interactive Brokers, a Wall Street upstart and price-cutter that is just the sort of firm Kanovich would be interested in if it were located abroad rather than in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Interactive has had a very cosmopolitan bent from its early days as an option specialist. Customers can use Interactives platform to access 135 markets in 33 countries while juggling 24 currencies. International trading is huge for us, says Steve Sanders, executive VP for marketing. Eighty percent of account applications are coming from outside the U.S. right now.

Interactives currency conversion fee is a bargain 0.2% (less for large trades) and its foreign stock-trading commission, for all but the smallest trades, is usually between 0.05% and 0.1%. You can hold credit balances in a collection of different foreign currencies, a real convenience when the dividend payments arrive.

In the Interactive screening database: 5,698 U.S. stocks and 17,715 foreign ones.

Now, its quite possible to buy foreign shares without delving into a foreign exchange, but this is a bad idea for stocks, like the ones in the table, that are unfamiliar to American investors. One method is to buy an American Depositary Receipt with a five-letter ticker ending in Y. The other is to buy foreign shares traded in dollars in the U.S. over-the-counter market, via five-letter tickers ending in F.

ADRs for big companies like HSBC are traded on exchanges and very liquid. But the Y shares for small companies, which change hands over the counter, can be a trading disaster. On one recent day the total volume for BHOOY, the ADR for Boohoo Group, was all of 100 shares. Boohoos F shares had a $284 grand total trading volume that day. A thin volume is an invitation to a market maker to pick your pocket. If you want Boohoo, buy it in London.

And if you buy it, buy and hold. In-and-out traders in small companies get hurt, Kanovich says, especially when they are venturing into the dimly lit corners of the universe.

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Follow This Guy Across The High Seas In Quest Of Growth Stocks - Forbes

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By Airman Aaron Edwards |Peterson-Schriever Garrison Public Affairs

SCHRIEVER SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. U.S. Space Force Tech. Sgt. Paul Abalos transferred from the U.S. Navy as a Petty Officer 1st Class into Space Delta 6 Cyberspace Operations, 61st Cyber Security Squadron as a defensive cyber operator on Sept. 15, 2021.

Abalos requested a transfer into the USSF to be a part of the U.S. militarys historic sixth branch. Abalos family has a rich service history, his father is a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant and his uncle, a retired U.S. Navy captain, aided in Abalos transfer by swearing him into his new service.

I joined the service to follow in my dads footsteps, said Abalos. I hear a lot of fun sea stories from my dad, but at the same time stories of defending freedom.

Abalos joined the U.S. Navy in 2004 as a cybersecurity information systems technician. He was able to travel the world with most of his Navy career spent in forward deployed naval forces.

My favorite assignment has been being assigned to an Expeditionary Medical Facility in Kuwait, said Abalos. Not only did I preform my cyber security duties, but I got to learn and experience the medical side [of the mission]. I learned how to start an IV and give fluids through a needle, as well as using the nasotracheal intubation tube, which inserts into your nose to breathe.

Abalos, his wife Kathleen and their three kids Victoria, Alexandra and Francesca moved to Colorado Springs from Bremerton, Washington.

With his new career in the USSF ahead of him, Abalos has goals to buy a house, finish his bachelors degree in cyber security, and learn the processes of the Space Force to achieve the highest possible pinnacle.

Abalos is adapting very well to his new work environment, said U.S. Space Force 1st Lt. Nathanial Akers, DEL 6, 61st CYS Mission Defense Team crew commander. He is proactive, very professional, and brings a unique perspective of cyber from the Navy.

Defensive cyber operators design, install and support systems to ensure they operate properly and remain secure from outside intrusion. These experts enhance capabilities and provide the Space Force with the best and most secure systems to keep them ahead of the curve.

I whole heartedly believe that my subject matter expertise in cyber security in the Navy will benefit the Space Force, to build upon its cyber field as an additional tool in space technology, to shape our newest service and ensure its success, said Abalos.

Even though Abalos is excited about joining the newest branch of the military, and wants to experience all of the new technology the Space Force has to offer, there are things from the Navy he will still miss like traveling, the many general quarter exercise drills, and the bells and whistles of the ships.

The Navy will always be dearest in my heart, said Abalos. A lot of experiences and trials I have endured has come from the Navy; which made me what I am today.

Abalos expertise in cyber security is exactly what the 61st CYS needs in a Guardian, to support the DEL 6 mission, to protect the integrity and security of all space-based mission systems and assets; keeping the Space Force above our enemies, always.

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From the High Seas to the High Frontier - csmng

Kiwis stuck overseas are risking the high seas in order to get through New Zealand's iron-clad borders.

These include seven strangers only one with open sea mariner qualifications who took a motorised catamaran from Australia to New Zealand. However, the group hit bad weather and a passenger was left with a broken rib.

Joseph Davidson, who was on board, said they were not alone. Another left Australia and arrived at Opua in the Bay of Islands after them, and he was aware of others doing or planning similar trips.

The idea was to take at least 14 days in international waters, effectively meaning their managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) was served on the ship.

READ MORE:* 'A national disgrace': Kiwi expats and travellers won't forget how they've been treated * $72,000 in 23 hours for legal challenge against MIQ* Grounded Kiwis files judicial review claim in High Court over MIQ

It comes as a group of New Zealanders, known as Grounded Kiwis, in the country and abroad launch a legal challenge about the legality of the design and operation of the New Zealand MIQ system.

The most feasible way for New Zealanders to get home is by trying their luck in the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employments virtual lobbies, in which people around the world log in to try for an MIQ spot.

Supplied

The catamaran carrying seven strangers sailed from Coffs Harbour in Australia to Opua in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.

There have so far been five of these lobbies. Each time thousands more logged on than there were rooms available, and the ministry would not confirm when another virtual lobby would come. MIQ joint head Megan Main said there were still several thousand rooms to be released through to the end of January.

Davidson said he had tried and failed in each virtual lobby so, after 10 months stuck in Australia, he saw a Facebook group arranging to sail back and joined up. I was the only qualified seafarer on the vessel, he said.

Supplied

The catamaran making its way from Australia to New Zealand.

The seven met on a Facebook group and met for the first time on the catamaran. While the captain had sailing experience, he did not have any notable experience on a motorised boat, such as the one they crossed on.

[The crossing] can be really dangerous, Davidson, a commercial marine engineer, said.

People are desperate now, but people can leave on a boat without any experience. It can open up a can of worms.

That can of worms opened up in 3-metre swells off the Three Kings islands, during which a woman was flung to the ground and broke a rib. That meant the crossing timed for 12 days, which would have meant two days on board at Opua to serve the 14-day MIQ process on board had to be shortened so that the woman could get medical help.

They are now serving the final four days of MIQ at an Auckland facility.

Bay of Islands Marina in Opua, where recreational vessels have to land, would not comment.

Grounded Kiwis spokesman Martin Newell said the case showed the lengths stranded Kiwis were willing to go through to see loved ones, and a change in the MIQ system was needed.

Grounded Kiwis on Tuesday suggested a two-phase system to allow more Kiwis home.

Phase one would mean fully vaccinated returnees from low-risk places could self-isolate for five days, and fully vaccinated returnees from medium-risk places would self-isolate for 10 days, with regular testing. High-risk returnees would still enter MIQ.

As vaccination rates increased, self-isolation would become more common and low-risk returnees with negative Covid-19 tests could avoid isolation all together.

New Zealand Government rules state that people can do 14 days of MIQ on a ship but private ships need permission to enter New Zealand, which is granted on a case-by-case basis.

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Covid-19: Kiwis risking it on the high seas to get back home - Stuff.co.nz

LOS ANGELES (NEXSTAR) The most severe impacts of climate change can feel far-off and far away from home, but a series of dramatic photo renderings released by Climate Central make the prospect of rising sea levels hit startlingly close to home.

Climate Central is an organization of scientists and journalists focused on studying the impacts of climate change and warming global temperatures. The group recently released its Picturing Our Future project, which shows what world monuments and cities would look like if the planet warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and what it would look like if we warmed 3 degrees over those same levels.

In the series of slider images below, the image on the left represents a 1.5-degree warming scenario which is the target of the Paris Agreement. The image on the right shows what sea level rise would look like in a planet that warmed by 3 degrees Celsius. (A 1.5 degree-change in Celsius is equal to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit; 3 degrees Celsius is 5.4 degree Fahrenheit.)

The renderings include a look at particularly vulnerable Los Angeles County communities, like Santa Monica, Long Beach and Marina Del Rey.

According to a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in August, the world is set to surpass the crucial 1.5-degree threshold in the early 2030s. But that doesnt mean well be seeing these flooding scenarios play out in the next ten years.

This is using projections that are really deep into the future, said Peter Girard, Climate Centrals director of communications. Girard called each of the futures depicted multi-century scenarios.

Thats because as the earth warms, it takes time for polar ice to melt, sea levels to rise, and oceans to expand (which they do when heated).

Were already at 1.1 degrees of warming compared to pre-industrial temperatures, but we havent even seen the full impact of such heat on the rising sea level yet.

These projections show that full, eventual impact. Each of the water levels represents the eventual point of equilibrium where the seas stop rising after the earth hits a certain peak temperature, said Girard.

Scientists are confident about these outcomes. Theyre just not sure of the exact timing, Girard explained.

In general, because its easier to figure out volume, science has an easier time understanding how high seas will rise and a harder time figuring out when it will happen.

Its a concept that can be hard to grasp in the abstract, but these images make the effects of sea level rise tangible and real.

The seas have stayed more or less where they always were, said Girard. Its really hard to get people to understand that we live in a world where theyre moving, and theyre rising.

Not all of the places depicted are coastal (though many are). Climate Centrals series of images show the impact of sea level rise on inland communities, too.

Rivers rise with oceans, said Girard. All of those connections are affected by rising seas. Communities you often think of as further upriver or not on the beach are still connected to this global system.

The science that went into creating the projections is complicated, but essentially boils down into three parts:

Girard hopes the complex science translates into something meaningful for people when they see these images.

So much of this story, so much of climate change is told on a global level. One of the things weve tried to do with our research is bring it to a personal and local level. Each of these places resonates with people differently because they are familiar with them and they care about them.

Girard, too, said one aspect of the project left an especially strong impression on him: The thought that familiar places can become so unfamiliar.

See how more U.S. cities and world monuments will be affected by sea level rise at Climate Centrals website.

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What L.A. County will look like with sea level rise, according to scientific projections - KTLA Los Angeles

In my previous article, I described two intense days frantically hunting a Soviet submarine in the Strait of Gibraltar back in 1967. I was a low-ranking sailor serving aboard the USS Steinaker the World War II-era Gearing class destroyer I sailed on for two years.Now Id like to describe some of our other high-seas adventures, and what life was like living aboard a destroyer in those days.

A warship like Steinaker is never left unattended, or completely powered down. Walking around the ship, you would always be aware of machinery noises, and powerful exhaust fans venting hot air from deep in the ships engineering spaces. You could always feel small vibrations, as if the ship was alive, and in a way it was. The ship was powered by high-pressure superheated steam produced by two large boilers that were heated with a thick, foul-smelling type of oil called bunker fuel.

The boilers were housed in their own space. When I was a new crewman, I got a tour of the boiler room. I remember a crewman leaning over near a steam line and lighting his cigarette by touching it to the line. The heat was intense in that compartment in some areas up to 150 degrees. The inlet end of the exhaust fans was in the boiler room, and you could stand under them to try to cool off. The steam was piped to the engine room, where it turned two turbines and probably other equipment such as generators. It would then be returned to the boiler room to be reheated.

What we usually think of as steam is really water vapor suspended in steam. Steam is a dry colorless gas. When you heat water to the boiling point, it changes state from a liquid to a gas, and you produce steam, but it doesnt contain much energy. If you lower the temperature even slightly, it will change states from a dry gas back to a liquid again. To make the steam useful, the energy needs to be greatly increased by raising the temperature and pressure. That way it can release tremendous energy while turning the turbine and still remain a dry gas.

USN

USS Steinaker, its bow soakeda normal occurrence.

The ship produced 60,000 horsepower from two steam lines that were about six inches in diameter. Its hard to wrap your mind around the power of high-pressure superheated steam. You cant see steam. That makes a leak extremely dangerous. A leak would create a huge white cloud of vapor in the compartment, but the actual steam leak could be many feet away because the white cloud would only form once the steam had cooled and the water began changing state from a gas to microscopic liquid droplets.

When looking for a steam leak, the boiler room folks were taught to wave a broom in front of them as they slowly approached a possible source. When they waved the broom in front of the leak it would cut all the bristles off, leaving a stump at the end of the pole.

Nowadays, U.S. Navy destroyers are powered by large gas-turbine engines just like the engines you might see on a large passenger jet but designed to turn a shaft instead of producing thrust. Gas turbines take up much less space, and the ship should be able to get underway from a cold start faster than a ship that had to fire up its boilers and slowly produce steam. The cost of running a gas turbine-powered ship must be impressive. Bunker fuel is cheap, but jet fuel is not.

Clearly, in the last five decades, just about everything on a destroyer has changed propulsion, weapon systems, sensors, navigation, and communications. But some things have not. The mission to project power and protect the sea lanes remains the same, and destroyers are still making cruises to the same destinations we did.

The ocean remains the same, and the Navy is still faced with the same design issue how do you cram a lot of sailors into a relatively small ship?

In the picture above, Steinaker is sailing at a moderate speed through calm seas. I spent half of my two years on Steinaker living in the forward berthing compartment, which was located about where you see 863 painted on the bow. In heavy weather, the bow constantly rose up (as in the photo) and then plunged into the next wave and was often completely submerged. Tons of water rolled across the deck, slamming into that forward gun mount, and was blasted high into the air where it landed on top of the 03-level where the bridge and Combat Information Center (CIC) were located.

More about that later

Sea states are described using the Beaufort Scale, which runs from zero to 12. In the picture, I would say this was maybe three on the scale, and thats probably a stretch. Here are the descriptions of sea states three and twelve, for comparison:

Author

My point is that destroyers can be rough-riding ships, even in calm conditions, but why do I mention sea state 12? Because Steinaker went through a hurricane while I was aboard. Ships do not normally steam into the middle of a hurricane, but hurricane paths are difficult to predict, and Steinaker wasnt the first ship to relocate to avoid a hurricane only to have the storm change course and run it down.

In our case, I remember being tied up at a small pier in Key West when we got the word that a hurricane was building in intensity and heading right for us. Ships do not want to get caught in shallow or restricted water when a big storm is headed their way, so we departed to the east to get some sea room, only to have the storm unexpectedly veer to the east and run us over.

I remember the anemometer in Combat (the Combat Information Center, or CIC) hovering around 75 knots and occasionally peaking at around 100 knots. I honestly do not remember it being that big a deal. Of course, that was over 50 years ago, and I am reminded of the definition of the good old days a good imagination and a bad memory. Maybe I was terrified while trapped in a windowless compartment listening to tons of water landing on top of us and hanging on for dear life.

All the chairs in CIC had seatbelts for a reason!

We had a public address system on the ship called the 1MC. I just Googled it and found that MC is short for Main Circuit. Anyway, it was common to hear, Now hear this. All hands stand clear of the weather decks while maneuvering at high speed through heavy seas. I took this picture with my little Minox camera showing why you would want to heed that warning:

Courtesy of the Author

A view of the ocean from the Steinaker in rough weather.

This picture was typical of what I remember the sea was always a dull gray and so was the sky. The only time in the two years I saw blue water was on a short trip to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The water in the bay was beautiful and the bottom was white sand that visit is for another time.

There were 21 of us housed in the forward berthing compartment, which was the size of the average apartments living room. Each person had a rack that consisted of a tubular aluminum frame with a canvas sheet stretched tight inside it. On top of the canvas was a thin mattress enclosed in a fart sack, which was like a large pillowcase.

Racks were stacked three high and lined up in rows. Some rows were freestanding, and others were attached to the bulkheads. I was in the middle between the lower and upper racks. That was a plus, as I was less likely to break my neck when I was tossed out of my rack and landed on the deck during a storm.

My row of racks was attached to the bulkhead with hinges, and the outer side was held in place with a chain at each end. When I lay flat on my back, with my elbows at my side, I could touch the top guys mattress with my fingers.

Between me and the bulkhead was a high-pressure steam line that ran from the boiler room to the engine room. It was insulated with asbestos and was about six inches in diameter. At my feet was a small fan. At night, when I managed to get to sleep, I occasionally stretched and stuck my toe into the fan.

NHHC

Enlisted berthing racks similar to those found on Gearing class destroyers

Below the bottom racks were small lockers where we stored all our possessions. If that bottom rack was occupied you could not get to your locker. That often happened since we were not all in the same watch sections half were on watch while the other half slept. So, by necessity, you might go on watch, leaving your small douche kit or a paperback book laying on your rack. Our chief would make regular visits into our compartment and collect any loose items he could find and lock them away in a locker he had commandeered. Each week there was a reckoning, and we were given two hours of extra duty for each item he collected.

We soon caught on to the chiefs schedule the reckoning always took place on Friday, so each Thursday we simply pounded the hinge pin out of his locker, redistributed his confiscated items, and then replaced the hinge pin. The chief was no fool. He soon figured out our scheme and added a second padlock. He insisted that the compartment lights always be on during daylight hours, and no towels or other items could be hung from the racks above to block the light. He was beloved by all, and we all enjoyed his petty torments. Eventually, it came to the attention of the officers that some of us seemed to have a bad attitude, but I digress

Picture yourself totally exhausted from long hours on watch and trying desperately to get some sleep. In heavy weather the bow moved up and down about 15 feet as the ship plowed through the waves. One second you were pressed down in your rack as the bow rose up the side of a wave, and the next you were floating weightless as the bow dropped into a trough. The only way to not get tossed out of your rack and onto the deck was to sleep on your stomach and wrap your arms and legs around the racks frame like a spider.

Each rack had some straps that you could use to tie yourself in with, but no one seemed to like those. You could also get a shipmate to tip your rack way up and shorten the chains, so you were wedged in, but then you could not get out by yourself, and that could be a big problem.

To these many layers of misery, you need to add the constant sound of the entire compartment going underwater and the noise of the sonar, which was not far below us. Actually, after a while I found the sonar restful. About once every five seconds, it made the sound you hear in every submarine war movie youve ever seen. Because my rack was against the bulkhead, I could hear the sonar pulse and the echoes reverberating.

At some point in my two years, I was also assigned to live in the aft berthing compartment. That was infinitely better, with no constant up and down motion, and at the far end of the ship from the sonar dome.

So far, Ive just been bitching about normal everyday physical misery and discomfort. Now I want to talk about a storm! You may be asking yourself, what is he going to whine about now? Im sure destroyers are completely safe in all weather conditions, right?

WRONG!

For example, on Dec. 18, 1944, Task Force 38 was struck by Typhoon Cobra sometimes called Halseys Typhoon off the Philippines. The destroyers USS Hull (DD-350), Spence (DD-512), and Monaghan (DD-354) all capsized and sank. Seven hundred ninety men were killed and 80 injured.

A destroyer can only roll so far before it capsizes. I think we came awfully close in the story I am going to tell you now.

During my first Med cruise, we found ourselves tied up next to this magnificent cruise ship the Michelangelo. I took this picture while we were both pierside in Genoa, Italy. That day, I had occasion to climb to the surface-search radar platform on the main mast with a shipmate to do some maintenance. I remember looking across at Michelangelo and commenting that it was so huge its main deck was higher than we were!

Courtesy of the Author

The cruise ship Michaelangelo in Genoa, Italy, in 1966.

Courtesy of the Author

For an idea of just how tall the cruise ship's hull was, this is what it looked like from where the author was viewing the ship.

On the seventh of April 1966, we both sailed out of Genoa and headed for the Atlantic. Steinaker was heading home. Five days later, on the morning of April 12, we both found ourselves mid-Atlantic and caught in a monstrous storm. The waves were massive the size of large buildings. Steinaker had 60,000 shaft horsepower, twin screws, and twin rudders. Normally that would result in a very capable and maneuverable ship. But on that day we were completely helpless. One minute we would be pointed north, the next east totally out of control. The extremely odd thing was that there was no wind to speak of and the sky was blue.

Whatever had caused these massive waves was gone.

When we were at the top of a wave, we could see for several miles. There was a large merchant ship about one mile away. I remember seeing it with the bow buried in a wave and the bronze propeller completely out of the water, turning slowly and with the sun glinting off the blades. Then we would slide down into a trough and lose sight of the ship. The next time we rose, that ship would be pointed in a completely different direction. We were both in big trouble.

USSSteinaker.org

The little destroyer, seen here pre-upgrade, was not the smoothest ride when waves were present.

Above our bridge windows at the center, there was an inclinometer, which consisted of a curved glass tube filled with an amber liquid. Inside the tube was a black marble that was free to roll to the lowest point in the tube. The inclinometer was marked off in degrees. While sliding down a wave sideways, we took a starboard roll of 56 degrees. We had been told we would capsize somewhere around 65 degrees. Time seemed to freeze. Would we right ourselves or capsize? I can still see the little bubbles in the inclinometer tube in my head.

With a 56-degree roll, it is easier to walk on the bulkhead than on the deck. These extreme rolls caused everything to go flying in every direction. I ended up on my butt, jammed up against the starboard bridge-wing door at the lowest spot formed by the sloping deck and starboard bulkhead, a pile of loose items in my lap. I remember straining my neck to look out the bridge-wing window. All I could see was a massive, malevolent wall of gray water that stretched up and out of sight above us. We never practiced abandoning ship, and I dont remember ever seeing a life jacket. We had a few lifeboats that had to be lowered by pulleys. Totally useless in rough seas.

It was clear we would all go down with the ship, or we would all make it out alive. It was just a question of physics.

Meanwhile, on the Michelangelo, a huge wave came across the main deck and crushed a large section of the ship. Four passengers were killed, and 50 were injured. Damage was extensive. The ship managed to limp into New York Harbor. Michelangelo estimated the wave height at 18 meters, or 60 feet. Sebastian Junger described this storm in his book The Perfect Storm.

Courtesy of the Author

This picture was shot from the bridge on Michelangelo during the storm. Remember that Michelangelo's main deck was higher than the top of Steinakers main mast!

Food on Steinaker was different from my mothers cooking. Sometimes the cooks would get bored and use food coloring to dye our scrambled eggs bright green. They also had a habit of serving really greasy slimy food when the weather was unusually rough. This leads seamlessly into another topic sea sickness. But first, a bit more reminiscing.

I do remember with great fondness the mashed potatoes. The potatoes were stored on the main deck in large cabinets with many holes for air circulation. In rough weather, they would get drenched with seawater, but the potatoes didnt seem to mind. Mashed potatoes were universally good. I dont think the cooks bothered to peel them, so there were small pieces of peel mixed in. I have to say that my favorite dinner ingredient was those mashed potatoes.

In my previous article about the encounter with the Russian Foxtrot submarine, I described two very intense days, but there were also times when we were simply steaming independently through the night. During times like that, things were very relaxed. Most of the crew would be sleeping, and my world would consist of the three lookouts, the bridge talker, and whoever was in Combat with me. We were all on the same sound-powered voice circuit. I remember killing time by asking everyone a brain teaser, such as I have ten coins in my pocket. They add up to sixty-four cents. What are they?

Id also try to keep the lookouts company, since Id been one earlier in my short career. If there was a surface contact on the radar I thought was visible, Id give the lookout facing that way the bearing. The visible horizon from their height above the sea was about 13 miles to the top of another ships masthead lights. If you had very good eyesight, you could catch momentary glimpses of them. Anyway, occasionally, around three in the morning, the smell of baking bread would manage to work its way all the way to the top deck on the ship. One of us would go down and get a hot loaf of bread from the cook, along with a brick of butter and a jar of jam.

Man, that hot bread tasted good! I look back on rare times like that with fondness.

In general, food especially perishable items is loaded at the last minute before a trip. As a low-ranking crewman, I got tagged for all the working parties, and loading provisions was a common one. I remember bringing a large box of frozen beef on board. On the box it said, USDA Good. Im not sure you can find that grade at the supermarket. It must be a special-order item.

Milk deserves a special category all to itself. I think the Navy tried hard to always get the very freshest milk delivered to the ship at the very last minute. Once underway, one of two possibilities would happen either we would run out, or the milk would start to go bad. In the latter case, the cooks would attempt to forestall the inevitable by using a series of clever steps. At first adding a bit of canned milk might disguise the taste and slightly brown color. Eventually, that would no longer pass the gag test, and they would have to add sugar, and maybe some powdered milk. Finally, it became a lost cause.

Once the milk ran out, other substitutes were called for. We used to have those small cereal packs that had ten choices in a carton. For the Navy, they were packed for ocean shipment by covering them in some sort of tar paper and then vacuum-sealing them in aluminum foil. We must have gotten a batch that had been in storage since the Korean War, because the tar paper taste had permeated into the corn flakes. One morning, I remember eating a bowl of tar-flavored corn flakes with purple Kool Aid instead of milk.

NHHC

Steinaker, sometime after her 1965 fleet revitalization and modernization upgrade in 1965.

Normally, the new watch section can go to the front of the chow line, eat, and then get up to CIC to relieve the watchstanders, who then have to rush down to get whatever is left. I remember arriving one day at the back of the chow line with a serious hunger. The evening meal was supposed to be chicken stew. When I arrived in front of the stew pot, I glanced inside. It looked like dirty dishwater with a few small flakes of meat floating in it. But at the bottom I could see a big juicy piece of meat. I told the cook I wanted that piece. An argument ensued, in which he wanted to know why I should get special treatment. I insisted and eventually he relented and granted my request.

I soon joined my shipmates and began attempting to cut my big juicy piece of meat. I remember that my knife was serrated, and it seemed to be scraping off crumbs. I tried reorienting the knife to cut the meat with the grain, but it didnt seem to have any grain. Eventually, I turned it over, and it had printing on it.

I was trying to eat part of the cardboard box the chicken came in.

The largest compartment on the ship was where we ate, and it sat directly over the midship berthing compartment. There were long tables that ran across the compartment from side to side. Food was served on metal trays like school kids probably use. The table edges were lined with a small lip to help keep the trays from sliding off in rough weather. That happened so frequently that we had a name for it Chow Course.

One particular evening, spaghetti was the main course, and I was hungry. I piled my tray high and then found a spot to sit at the end of a table. I sat my tray down, judged that the ship was fairly steady, and headed over to the bug juice dispenser. Just as I was headed back to my spot, the ship took a sickening roll that angled the table in a downward direction from my end. The tray started sliding slowly at first. As it picked up speed, each person simply raised their tray off the table to let it pass. By the time it reached the other end of the table, it was moving! It hit that little lip like a ski jump, and it was catapulted into the air. As if in slow motion, it floated through the air without losing a single noodle and dropped straight down the hatch leading to the midship berthing compartment. Time stood still. Imagine the boatswains mates surprise when a fully laden tray of spaghetti descended straight down that hatch and landed squarely on his head!

That wasnt the only unexpected roll, and, in short order, people were slipping and sliding all over the place. Noodles and spaghetti covered the deck. It started to look like a tag-team mud-wrestling contest with noodles instead of mud.

Just another navy day at sea on a destroyer.

Hows this for a segue? When I first arrived on the ship, they were already preparing for my first Med cruise. One of the more common modes of entertainment on any ship is to mess with the new arrivals. I was almost immediately sent looking for a pot of relative-bearing grease.

I had been learning to fly before I joined the Navy, and I knew what a relative bearing was, so they switched to plan B: Speak constantly about how rough the ocean would be once we got underway. The goal was to get into the new guys head and get him worrying. Once you achieved that, nature would do the rest.

I didnt fall for that one either. I had experience. When I was a kid, my parents moved us to New York for a few years and I had ridden the Staten Island Ferry several times. I never got seasick.

I was confident.

The waterway leading from the Norfolk Naval Base to the Atlantic Ocean is long and complicated. This whole complex collection of waterways is called Hampton Roads. It takes quite a while to reach the ocean. Once underway, I spent the time convincing myself that the ship wasnt any different than the Staten Island ferry boat. Eventually, we reached the ocean, and I realized I was in big trouble.

It wasnt long before I was leaning over the side and praying to the god of seasick sailors, ORoark. That was the only time I lost my lunch, but I spent most of the remaining two years with a headache.

There is a reason for that. Fear of the unknown and lack of experience are huge problems, but easily overcome. Once youve been through rough weather a few times, you will know what to expect.

You can also take precautions. We used to eat an entire box of saltine crackers before heading out after being in port for a while. The theory was that having a big wad of cracker dough in your stomach instead of your stomach contents sloshing around with normal food would help.

Wikimedia

Comparison of two U.S. Navy Gearing-class destroyers from World War II and after the Fleet Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) I refit in the early 1960s. USS Sarsfield (DD-837) is shown on 23 August 1945, about three weeks after her commissioning. She features three 12.7-cm/38 twin mounts, 16 40-mm Bofors AA guns, and 5 53.3 cm torpedo tubes between the funnels. USS Rowan (DD-782) is shown circa early 1965, after her FRAM I refit: she has two 12.7-cm mounts, Mk 32 torpedo launchers, SPS-37 radar, ASROC launcher between the funnels, and a Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH) hangar and flight deck aft.

This next story takes place somewhere in the middle of the ocean at night in rough weather. It makes no difference where it happened, and I tell it not to show that I had a cast-iron stomach or was tougher than everyone else, but to prove there is a very strong mind-over-matter aspect to seasickness.

It was a miserable night. The ships motion was nauseating in the extreme. There is a best course to sail for the smoothest ride, but that may not be the direction you need to go. As seems to be the case in my stories, I was on the surface-search radar and responsible for preventing collisions with other ships. I dont remember, but if we were operating with a carrier task force there would have been a lot going on. Everything conspired to make us all want to die. Water was probably being thrown on top of our compartment, the wind was probably howling, and the smell of vomit was strong. Everyone in CIC was sick but me. That included our division officer, who was lying face down on the deck with his head near the entrance to CIC. Anyone entering would bang the door into his head. He lay near a trash can, and every now and then he would raise his head to puke into the can. I had a splitting headache, but I wasnt incapacitated for the simple reason that I couldnt afford to be. The safety of the ship depended on me.

If someone else had been on that position they would not have had the luxury to be sick either.

Mind over matter.

When we were in a foreign port, the crew would be allowed to go ashore after they had completed their duties for the day, but we all had to return by midnight. The age of the average junior enlisted man was probably about 20, and most had never been away from home prior to joining the Navy. Their favorite activity seemed to be to find the closest bar and proceed to get as drunk as possible.

Some thought starting a large bar fight only added to the fun. I didnt drink, but wandering the dock area of a strange foreign port alone in the middle of the night was a bad idea. There were a lot of people that didnt like American sailors. So, often, I would end up in a bar anyway. I could act as the designated sober guy for some of my shipmates.

In addition to the small individual lockers we each had, there was a communal locker where we kept our large pea coats. Each was kept in a plastic bag with a zipper. I bring this up because, after waking one morning, after we had all been ashore the night before, I mentioned that I had had a vivid dream. I dreamt that someone had taken a piss in the pea coat locker. It was such a vivid dream that I felt compelled to look.

I guess it wasnt a dream after all.

The bottom of one bag was swollen with what looked like a gallon of urine. The bottom of the pea coat was immersed and it acted as a wick, so the entire bottom of the coat was saturated.

No problem. It wasnt my bag!

One more sea story. This one also takes place in our berthing compartment. The aisle between rows of racks was narrow. On the top rack of one row lived a sailor with a temper. Adjacent to him was a sailor who snored loudly. I dreamt that they were having a fight in the middle of the night. In the morning, the sailor who snored was complaining he had been attacked by bed bugs during the night because his face was covered with welts. I glanced across to the grouchy guys rack and there was a metal clothes hanger that was bent up like a pretzel.

I was the only one who knew what had happened while they both slept. I kept it to myself.

Okay One more sea story. At some point, a first-class electronics tech came aboard. A first class is a pretty high enlisted rank an E-6. It takes years to attain that rank, but he had served his entire Navy career up to that point working ashore. This was to be his first experience on a ship. He was a genuinely nice guy and wanted to get off on the right foot with the rest of the crew, so he asked if there was anything he could do.

Big mistake!

NHHC

A hand-painted Steinaker seal.

One of the first things you learn is to never volunteer, unless you are extremely bored and want to roll the dice. Anyway, it was suggested that he could stand mail-buoy watch on the bow, which would be most appreciated. Of course, never having served aboard a ship, he was unfamiliar with how we received our mail at sea. It was explained that the Navy always knew where we were, and our intended course, so they could pack our mail in a waterproof sack attached to a bright red buoy with a flashing light attached and chuck it out of a plane directly in our path. That was such a masterful load of BS that I almost believed it myself!

Standing on the bow, searching for the mail buoy, you are visible to everyone on the bridge. No one stands on the bow underway because its cold and windy, and youre going to get blasted with spray, even on a good day.

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Life On The High Seas Aboard A Tin Can Destroyer During The Cold War - The Drive

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With an international crew navigating the open seas around two active volcanoes and six Mediterranean islands, ABBYY Chairman of the Board and seasoned yachtsman, Robert Youngjohns, will compete in the Royal Malta Yacht Club (RMYC) 42nd Rolex Middle Sea Race, the premier 606-nautical mile offshore race Saturday, October 23. Aboard the ABBYY Antelope, Susan Glenny will skipper the XP44 yacht with sailors from the United States, U.K., and Netherlands.

We are excited to use the platform of sailing to promote ABBYY, the sport aligns well with our brand. Sailing is a technical sport, utilizing digital platforms and analysis to optimize performance and its participants and audiences fit well with our target groups, commented Youngjohns. ABBYY is a leader in digital intelligence for business process discovery and intelligent document processing. We are proud to be associated with this team taking part in the Rolex Middle Sea Race.

The ABBYY Antelope is among a fleet of 124 yachts from more than 17 countries. The team includes members from the Club Swan 50 and Maxi class and is competing in the IRC 4 division. Glenny is a former member of the Irish Olympic sailing team and founder of Tigress Racing. She represented Ireland at the 2020 European Mixed Offshore Keelboat Championships in Genoa, Italy, skippered the first all-female team to complete the challenging Caribbean 600 race, and has skippered multiple Transatlantic Races. Additionally, Glenny was the highest scoring female skipper in the 2019 RORC Global Series Championship and her boat Olympias Tigress won the Edmund Whelan Trophy at Cowes week 2019.

The record time for completing the Rolex Middle Sea Race was 47 hours, 55 minutes & 3 seconds set in 2007. Visit Rolex Middle Sea Race for more information.

ABOUT ABBYY

ABBYY empowers organizations to gain a complete understanding of their business processes and the content that fuels them with its Digital Intelligence platform. ABBYY technologies are used by more than 5,000 companies, including many of the Fortune 500, and is recognized for its leadership in Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) and Process Discovery & Mining for driving significant impact where it matters most: customer experience, effectiveness, profitability, and competitive advantage. ABBYY is a global company with offices in 14 countries. For more information, visit http://www.abbyy.com/company/about-us/.

ABBYY can either be a registered trademark or a trademark and can also be a logo, a company name (or part of it), or part of a product name of ABBYY group companies, and may not be used without consent of its respective owners.

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ABBYY to Hit the High Seas in the World Prestigious Rolex Middle Sea Race 2021 - Business Wire

The worst effects of climate change often feel far away from home, but a series of sudden picture renderings which climate central releases make the possibility of rising sea levels surprisingly hit near home.

(Photo : Getty Images)

Climate Central is a group of scientists and journalists dedicated to researching the effects of global warming and climate change.

The organization recently launched their "Picturing Our Future" project, which depicts how world monuments and cities might appear if the earth warmed 1.5C beyond pre-industrial levels, and 3C above those same levels.

According to a report issued in August by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the globe is on track to exceed the critical 1.5-degree barrier in the early 2030s. However, this does not indicate that these flooding scenarios will occur in the next 10 years.

Climate Central's head of communications, Peter Girard, stated, "This is using projections that are really deep into the future."

Each of the futures represented was dubbed 'multi-century scenarios' by Girard. This is because it takes time for polar ice to melt, sea levels to rise, and seas to expand as the globe warms.

We're already warmed by 1.1 C since pre-industrial times, but the full impact of this heat on increasing sea levels is yet to be observed.

Also Read:Scientists Warn Extreme Sea Levels Might Become More Common in the Future

These predictions depict the entire, long-term impact. "Each of the water levels represents the eventual point of equilibrium where the seas stop rising after the earth hits a certain peak temperature," Girard explained.

Scientists are optimistic about the results. Girard added that they are only unsure of the exact timing.

In general, science has an easier time comprehending how high seas will rise and a harder time figuring out when it will happen since volume is simpler to figure out.

In the abstract, it's a difficult notion to understand, but these photographs make the impacts of rising sea levels real.

The seas have stayed pretty much where they've always been, Girard added. It's quite difficult to persuade people living in a world where the seas are moving and increasing.

Not all of the locations featured are on the shore (though many are). The photos from Climate Central demonstrate the impact of sea level rise on inland settlements as well.

(Photo : Getty Images)

Rivers increase with the oceans, Girard explained. Rising waters have an impact on all of those links. Communities that you would conceive of as being further upriver or away from the seaside are nevertheless part of this global system.

The science behind the projections is difficult, but it can be broken down into three sections:

Using IPCC projections to analyze sea level rise

Predicting possible coastal flooding

Creating the digital elevation models - this was the hardest element, according to Girard, because most previous models underestimated how high the land is, hence, underestimating the impact of flooding.

When people see these photographs, Girard hopes the intricate science translates into something meaningful for them.

A lot of tales have been told about climate change on a global scale. One of the goals of this study has been to bring it down to a personal and local level. People have various reactions to each of these locations because they are familiar with them and care about them, Girard said.

Related Article:Halting Global Warming May Make a Huge Difference in Rising Sea Levels

For more news, updates about rising sea levels and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!

2021 NatureWorldNews.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

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Scientific Projections Reveal Grim Future of US Cities Affected by Rising Sea Levels - Nature World News

Every year, sailing crews on over 130 vessels risk all in the pursuit of racing excellence at the Rolex Middle Sea Race. Months of preparation that culminates in 1,125 kilometres between Sicily and Malta. As they set sail, one of these brave yachts is the internationally renowned Artie, which is being sponsored by Elmo Insurance.

Elmo is one of Maltas leading insurance companies and has provided marine, motor, home, travel, health and business insurance for decades. As a marine insurer, Elmo Insurance supports the yachting community with a range of insurance solutions for all types of leisure boating.

We are proud to be sponsoring Artie in this years race. The crew are a clear example of strong values, such as perseverance, determination, and excellence, said COO Anthony Cauchi.

These are values that are at the heart of everything we do at Elmo. Among these values, we also admire the crew for their sportsmanship and their willingness to take risks, he continued. They constantly push forward to continue to achieve incredible things. Its a great example of balancing risk with reward. We wish the crew all the best as they take off today.

At Elmo, we believe it is now more important than ever, to look forward with strong hope and aspirations for the future.

Elmo Insurance Limited (C-3500) is registered in Malta. Authorised to carry on general insurance business in terms of the Insurance Business Act (Chapter 403 of the Laws of Malta) and regulated by the MFSA.

Elmo Insurance offers a full range of insurance solutions including motor, marine, home, travel, health and business. For more information visit elmoinsurance.com or call 2343 0000.

Independent journalism costs money. Support Times of Malta for the price of a coffee.

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Elmo Insurance takes on the high seas as it sponsors Artie for Middle Sea Race - Times of Malta