All Climate Events

Thursday, February 25, 2021. 1:00 PM. Webinar: Climate Change and Submerged Maritime and Cultural Resources in the Mid-Atlantic. Susan Langley, Maryland Historic Trust. Sponsored by Mid-Atlantic Coastal Acidification Network. Register here.

Abstract: Although our maritime heritage is young compared to the Vikings' our country has thousands of cultural resources such as shipwrecks, shell middens, and sunken vessels from WWII, that lie under or adjacent to the  Mid-Atlantic's coastal waters. This presentation examines how different aspects of climate change, including ocean acidification, impact our heritage resources. It defines the diverse cultural materials affected and considers the potential and resulting effects on archaeological research, the environment, and the economy. In addition, means of addressing these effects, both active and proposed are discussed. One example involves a survey of archaeologists associated with government agencies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations who all placed ocean acidification in the top three most damaging climate change threats they face in their work. This has led to increased networking at a global level as we enter the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Speaker: Maryland's State Underwater Archaeologist, Dr. Susan Langley, will discuss how climate change, including ocean acidification, impacts Mid-Atlantic cultural and heritage resources. Efforts to address these impacts on a local-to-global scale will also be examined.