Invited Speaker

2017 The Rising Politics of Sea Level. International training program for faculty and administrative staff of Huaihai Institute of Technology, San Francisco State University, College of Extended Learning, 21 Jul.

The Rising Politics of Sea Level

Terrestrial national boundaries are determined by Mean Sea Level.  a concept only developed in the U.S. around the turn of the century while surveying navigable routes. This imagined surface has political and physical implications, and rising sea levels makes it important to consider how nation’s coasts, and coastal borders, are shifting landward. Small islands in the South Pacific are not only losing their land due to erosion and sea level rise, but they are also losing their sovereign territory, both land and sea. The political implications for Kiribati losing fishing grounds is not inevitable if there can be international cooperation  addresses the political construction of Mean Sea Level.