American conservationists have been putting a lot of energy into publicising the plight of North Carolina’s coastline. Low lying, swampy and sprinkled with well managed conservation areas, it hosts numerous endangered species including the red wolf and red cockaded woodpecker, as well as a splinter group of black bears. It was here that early settlers drained bogs and built dykes, carving a new landscape from the peaty myre that greeted them off their boats.

However, rapid sea level change is threatening this unique ecosystem. In a long article in The New York Times yesterday, Jessica Leber visited Alligator River Wildlife refuge to report on the slow farewell to a coastal refuge:

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A useful, if slightly simplistic, overview of how the oceans will be affected by increased atmospheric temperatures has just been published on Al Jazeera’s website.  It is a good introduction to some of the issues we will be exploring later this year.

For those of us who live near the coast, the oceans have a clear and direct impact on our everyday lives; storms, varying sea levels, fishing and recreation.  However, if we live inland, what possible influence can the oceans have on us?  For those of us who live in the developed world climate change is our problem, our fault, and we have to act now to prevent the situation from worsening.  A sceptic would argue that climate change is not the problem of the developing world.

If only life on our planet was that simple.

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