When the Water Comes: Managing Sea Level Rise
In this episode of People Places Planet, host Dara Albrecht is joined by Jeffrey Peterson, environmental policy expert and author of A New Coast: Strategies for Responding to Devastating Storms and Rising Seas. Together, they unpack the science behind sea level rise, its regional impacts, and the urgent challenges it poses for coastal communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems.
The conversation explores the key drivers of sea level rise, regional vulnerabilities across the U.S., and the growing risks tied to accelerating climate change. Peterson also dives into the legal and policy dimensions of adaptation, discussing land use controls, managed retreat, insurance frameworks, and emerging litigation around takings and government responsibility. The episode highlights how sea level rise will reshape planning, governance, and community resilience for generations to come.
Listeners interested in learning more about legal and policy responses to climate impacts can visit ELI's Climate Judiciary Project website to explore additional resources, including the new Sea Level Rise module.
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Creators and Guests
Host
Dara Albrecht
Dara Albrecht joined the Environmental Law Institute as a Research Associate in August 2023. She is currently working on the Climate Judiciary Project and the Global Marine Protected Areas project. Dara is also the host of People Places Planet Podcast. She has previously contributed to the Environmental Law Reporter, the Belize Fisheries Project, and ELI’s Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Evaluation. Prior to joining ELI, Dara pursued desert ecology research at the University of Sydney in Australia and served as a reviewer and writer for articles published in “Biodiversity Islands: Strategies for Conservation in Human-Dominated Environments (2022).” She co-authored “The biogeochemical boomerang: Site fidelity creates nutritional hotspots that may promote recurrent calving site reuse,” published in August 2024. Other work includes translating the Reef Environmental Education Foundation’s citizen science material to Spanish to increase accessibility for Latinx communities and leading conservation planning projects with the US Forest Service and California Bureau of Land Management. Dara is a two-time awardee of the Richter Fellowship, and is also a Curtis Travelling Fellow, Bruce M. Babcock Travel Research Fellow, and Tetelman Fellow for International Research in Sciences. Dara is passionate about using science to develop successful conservation planning and shape policy. As a Peruvian citizen with roots in the Amazon, she is an advocate for cross-cultural environmental collaboration and developing just solutions for vulnerable communities who are impacted by climate change. Dara is a 2023 graduate from Yale University with a B.S. in Environmental Science with a concentration in Biodiversity and Conservation. Her senior thesis was an independent research project focused on the stoichiometry of caribou diet across Newfoundland and its conservation implications. Dara would like to honor with gratitude all the ancestral stewards of this land, past and present, and acknowledge the ancestral and unceded native territory on which ELI sits today.
Editor
Sebastian Duque Rios
Sebastian Duque Rios joined the Environmental Law Institute as a Research Associate in August 2024. He provides editorial support for the People Places Planet Podcast.
