Tulane professors Torbjörn (Tor) Törnqvist, a geologist, and Sönke Dangendorf, a coastal engineer and physical oceanographer, join John to talk about sea level rise and coastal restoration, and what could happen to coastal communities if we pass the Paris Agreement global temperature threshold of 1.5-degree Celsius. Sönke has more than 15 years of experience researching mean and extreme sea levels, ocean tides and storm surges and the impact on coastal flooding, and is a member of the NASA Sea-Level Change Team. Tor has been researching the evolution of rivers, deltas, coasts, and shallow oceans in response to climate and sea-level change for more than 20 years.

Richard Seager, a climate scientist and the Palisades Geophysical Institute/Lamont Research Professor at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, joins John to talk about changes in aridity in North America around the 100th Meridian, and how climate change is going to affect the heartland of the U.S. and the Mississippi river basin. Richard’s current work is focused on how global hydroclimate will change in the near-term future as a result of rising greenhouse gases, and how that will affect people and food systems.

Ed Clark, Director of NOAA’s National Water Center and the Deputy Director of the National Weather Service’s Office of Water Prediction, talks with John about how data science plays a role in water forecasting, how new tools and technologies can provide better services to all communities, and how the National Water Center might help prepare the nation for the implications of climate change on human health.

Thomas LaVeist, public health expert and Dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, talks with John about how climate change will impact health, especially for more vulnerable communities, and the role water will play.