Coastal Climate Messaging Essentials: It’s All in the Telling

Extreme weather events like nor’easters may be unavoidable and challenging. But learning effective ways to share information about their impacts can have far-reaching benefits.

By Catherine Schmitt

About this article

This article was originally published in the "Educate and Interpret" section of Park Science magazine, Volume 38, Number 1, Summer 2024 (August 30, 2024).

January 2024 storm damage to Acadia National Park's historic Blue Duck Ships Store in Islesford on Little Cranberry Island, Maine.

Image credit: NPS

Most of us experience climate change through extreme weather. Along the U.S. East and Gulf coasts, for example, scientists expect tropical storms and hurricanes to increase in frequency and intensity. Projections for other types of coastal storms, like extratropical nor'easters, are less certain, though experts expect impacts from all coastal storms to worsen as sea levels rise. Parks in coastal areas are working to understand and prepare for these events. A vital part of that is sharing information with staff, visitors, and nearby communities. But how to do this effectively is sometimes unclear, so I’ve been collaborating with climate scientists to develop guidelines for how we talk about extreme weather and its impacts.

Learning How to Talk about Storms

In 2018, University of Rhode Island oceanography professor Isaac Ginis and graduate student Deb Crowley began modeling the impacts of future nor'easters and coastal flooding in Acadia National Park, the National Parks of Boston, and Cape Cod National Seashore. They published their work in 2024 in the National Park Service Science Report Series. I worked with these researchers and with staff at all three parks to create related interpretive and educational products and programs. I also looked at coastal adaptation case studies and vulnerability assessments from other parks and reviewed the scientific literature. In this way, I learned best practices for talking about the impacts of storms and climate change with communities and visitors in coastal national parks.

On Dec. 17, 2020, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES East satellite zoomed in on a nor’easter in southern New England. Nor’easters originate in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Like hurricanes (which begin in the tropics), they produce strong winds and large waves.

Image credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Best Practice No. 1: Make It Local

People are concerned about the impacts of extreme weather where they live. Nor'easters are an example of a uniquely regional phenomenon. Like hurricanes, nor’easters occur in the North Atlantic Ocean and produce strong winds and large waves. They’re typically accompanied by heavy precipitation and can cause substantial coastal erosion. But there are key differences between the two types of storms. “Nor’easter” is more specific than “storm” and more local than “hurricane.” It’s part of the environmental setting and character of northeastern coastal parks and their surrounding communities.

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Talking about nor’easters and related science with local residents can demonstrate that parks share local concerns.

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Talking about nor’easters and related science with local residents can demonstrate that parks share local concerns, are affected by climate change, and are taking action to respond. Visitors from outside the region are likely more familiar with hurricanes, or they may have other types of storms where they live. This presents us with an opportunity to compare “their” storms to “our” storms and to discuss changing storm patterns in general.

Acadia National Park staff discuss storm impacts at Seawall Picnic Area with members of a University of Rhode Island research team. The team created models that predict possible future nor'easters and coastal flooding.

Image credit: Schoodic Institute / Catherine Schmitt

Local factors also affect the rate and magnitude of sea level rise. This rise is relative to the shoreline and varies because of things like topography, geography, and land subsidence, giving us another opportunity to ensure information is locally relevant. We tried to use the most local data available. For Acadia, this meant data and projections for future sea levels that were specific to the closest sea level gauge at Bar Harbor.

Best Practice No. 2: Acknowledge Science as One Way of Knowing

Science is a process, a way of knowing about the world. Science isn’t just a collection of facts; it’s about the people who came to know those facts and how. There are also other, no less valid ways of knowing the world, for example, through livelihood practices like fishing or through Indigenous relationships with land, water, and sky. Talking about science as a way of knowing—not the only or necessarily the best way of knowing—makes the conversation a two-way discussion and shows respect for the perspectives of all participants.

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Talking about science as a way of knowing—not the only or necessarily the best way of knowing—makes the conversation a two-way discussion.

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Share Science as it Unfolds

Scientists often talk about their research at the beginning, say, when they obtain funding, or at the end when they publish their results. But the most exciting stories could be about what happens in between. Gateway National Recreation Area’s Big Egg Marsh is a salt marsh in New York City’s Jamaica Bay. Sea level rise could cause the marsh to disappear within decades. A story about restoring the marsh revisits the project 20 years after it started, when scientists returned to check on its progress. It’s a good example of sharing scientific information as it unfolds, with audio clips, video, and illustrations of field notebooks.

Talk about People

People like hearing about people. National Park Service interpretive rangers are well acquainted with this. When they interpret science for the public, they aim to do so in a way that goes beyond synthesizing information about a resource. Their goal is to explore the processes, people, values, and personal, societal, and cultural relevance of science. A video about the nor’easter project, for example, talks about the scientists who are modeling storm impacts and shows them explaining the models to park staff.

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Duration:

2 minutes, 52 seconds

Nor'easters are large storms that batter the coast of Acadia National Park, Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, and Cape Cod National Seashore. Discover how these storms influence these parks and how climate change is influencing the intensity and damage of Nor'easters.

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Be Humble

Acknowledging uncertainty, which everyone can relate to, is also important. When Acadia staff, partners, and I tried to talk with each other, or with residents and visitors, about rising sea levels, we realized how confusing the subject is. There were many different sources of information, and projections used different benchmarks and time periods. Our task was easier after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published the multi-agency 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report. By sticking with this one source for projections, we resolved some of the confusion. Still, we tried to be honest about how much we don’t know, avoiding words that convey certainty about the future, such as “will.”

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We tried to be honest about how much we don’t know.

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We also asked partners and park visitors to help us evaluate three-dimensional visualizations of sea level rise impacts on local sites. These visualizations, which Penn State University professor Peter Stempel created, were based on Ginis and Crowley’s work. Deliberately imperfect, full-color poster prints of the visualizations served to engage people and spark conversations about how their favorite places are changing. We explicitly asked for their input on how to improve the visuals. They suggested orienting the viewer by identifying local landmarks such as schools and clearly labeling elements like water level height and projected year.

Peter Stempel's visualization of Route 3 in Trenton, Maine, where it crosses Thompson Island, part of Acadia National Park. The shades of yellow and orange show the predicted extent of flooding if sea levels were three feet higher during the nor’easter storm of January 2018.

Image credit: © Peter Stempel. Used by permission.

Incorporate Multiple Perspectives

When it comes to understanding the future impacts of climate change, the greatest source of uncertainty is human action. Incorporating other perspectives expands ideas of what’s possible.

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Professor Leonard's research has drawn attention to the militarized language that is pervasive in climate change communication.

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Kelsey Leonard is a member of the Shinnecock Nation and an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo. Professor Leonard's research has drawn attention to the militarized language that is pervasive in climate change communication. She notes that kind of language is often ineffective and inappropriate, especially for people who have known violence in their lives. Leonard proposes replacing the language of loss and retreat with that of mending and unity, something other researchers have also recommended. Other ways of knowing can thus reveal unexpected solutions and encourage more optimistic views of the future, which some have linked to greater participation in climate action.

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Best Practice No. 3: Stay Positive

Larry Perez is a communications coordinator for the National Park Service’s Climate Change Response Program. He said there’s a lot of scientific research that supports “hope versus doom” in how we talk about impacts. This forms the basis, he explained, “for why we tend to favor redemptive framing." One positive message that parks can share about the impacts of extreme weather is “we’re taking action,” because action implies hope for the future.

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Approaches to climate resilience that adapt to changes like sea level rise instead of fighting it fall well within this framework.

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U.S. national park management policies are moving along a continuum from “resisting” to “accepting” to “directing” change. Wherever a park falls within this range of options, the fact that there are options can counter gloom-and-doom narratives that provoke feelings of helplessness or apathy. Approaches to climate resilience that adapt to changes like sea level rise instead of fighting it fall well within this framework. Boston, for example, like many coastal communities around the world, is prioritizing natural berms and floodable green spaces over hard infrastructure like concrete seawalls. Around Charlestown Navy Yard, the city is raising a main street by two feet to protect more than 250 residents and building green space up and out from the current shoreline.

Werowocomoco is a significant Indigenous cultural site on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail in Virginia. It’s the childhood home of Pocahontas. The site has lost several feet of shoreline due to sea level rise. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science built a living shoreline of plants and natural rocks there that prevents more soil from washing away. The plants hold the soil in place, and the stones buffer the force of oncoming waves.

Werowocomoco, the childhood home of Pocahontas, has lost several feet of shoreline due to sea level rise. To prevent more erosion, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science built a living shoreline of rocks and plants. Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail manages this historic site.

Image credit: NPS

People who study natural processes can often help others maintain a positive, long-term perspective. After Hurricane Sandy hit Long Island, New York, in 2012, visitors viewed a breach in the sand dunes at Fire Island National Seashore as a loss. But scientists portrayed it as a natural change inherent to the barrier beach ecosystem.

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National parks also project positive messages by their very existence, offering solace and comfort.

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These stories show it’s possible to acknowledge climate change’s negative consequences while also recognizing that nature is resilient and dynamic. Although storms may damage ecosystems, they can also replenish shorelines, bringing sediment onto marshes. Storm surges wash over dunes and beaches and refresh coastal lagoons, and windthrown trees become habitat for animals and help to further stabilize shorelines. National parks also project positive messages by their very existence, offering solace and comfort in their permanence. Park environments may be changing, but parks and their mission are enduring.

Best Practice No. 4: Invite Participation

Inviting the public to participate in scientific research (citizen science), as well as working with groups to identify research questions and methods (community science), follow several of the best practices presented here. For example, they acknowledge other ways of knowing, and they offer positive action. In coastal parks and surrounding communities, residents and visitors help document sea level rise by taking photographs during “king tides” and after storms. In Acadia, we’re using these photos to validate flood models used in developing Stempel’s visualizations.

Acadia National Park Artist-in-Residence Emilio Sweet-Coll working with a group of visitors.

Image credit: NPS / Brady Richards

Though not perfect, tools like participatory mapping can compile these crowd-sourced photos into inclusive stories of individual flood events. Other “street-level” community projects, like The Changing Cape, draw upon people’s shared experiences and memories of historic storms. They may invite people from across generations to ask and answer “what if?” questions. Their answers serve to help parks interpret and share scientific stories with greater sensitivity to the different ways climate change can affect diverse groups of people.

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Artists can be among parks' best allies in adapting and responding to climate change in a way that includes a broad spectrum of people.

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Artists can be among parks' best allies in adapting and responding to climate change in a way that includes a broad spectrum of people. For example, visitors and local residents can assist artist Jennifer Steen Booher and the Mount Desert Island Historical Society with the Coast Lines project. This project aims to mark actual and projected sea levels in communities surrounding Acadia National Park.

Making the Time

Ginis and Crowley’s research created the space and time to evaluate how parks share information on nor’easters and climate change impacts. Along with park staff, we identified research-based best practices for interpreting and talking about climate change. Using these, we revised data visualizations and generated information in response to community questions. Our work can help parks communicate effectively about damaging winter storms, regardless of the level of destruction or necessary response. Most importantly, it shows that it’s crucial to work with communities and visitors. Because regardless of who we are, we’re all in the same boat when it comes to weathering the next “record-breaking” climate event.

Acknowledgments

The work described in this story was made possible in part though funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Park Service. Thanks to Graham Good for research assistance, Amanda Babson and Larry Perez for guidance and support, Mount Desert Island Historical Society for community engagement opportunities, and staff at Cape Cod National Seashore, National Parks of Boston, and Acadia National Park for their insights.

About the author

_{Catherine Schmitt is a science communication specialist with Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park. Image courtesy of Linda Moses.}