Law Commons^™

Our climate is changing. And the trend of this climate change shows the earth is, on average, getting warmer. We in New England emerged from a very cold winter in 2014 making it hard for us to see (and thus believe) the earth is getting warmer. But this is the trick of cli- mate change: The pattern of overall warming is hard to see on a day-to-day basis. We tend to judge our climate through experiencing our local weather patterns: When the weather is cold like it has been in our region over the past winter, it is hard for …

This article explores how the identification and account- ing of ecosystem services can aid coastal management policies, particularly as management looks to a future that includes the impacts of climate change. At the core of making better deci- sions is an understanding of the value of ecosystem services. The economic context of ecosystem services is explored in order to outline what may be considered a complete account- ing of costs. Once contextualized, ecosystem services will then be applied to current coastal management issues associ- ated with sea level rise. In particular, policy-relevant questions about mitigating and adapting to sea level …