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Rising Waters Recap: Journalist David Boraks discusses his reporting for WHQR's series

Wrightsville Beach is wider this summer after a nearly $15 million project pumped a million cubic yards of sand onto it last winter.
David Boraks
/
WHQR
Wrightsville Beach is wider this summer after a nearly $15-million project pumped a million cubic yards of sand onto it last winter.

Over the last week, WHQR aired and published our three-part series, Rising Waters — which looked at several different ways climate change is impacting the Carolina Coast and the Cape Fear region. WHQR’s Ben Schachtman spoke with veteran climate reporter David Boraks about his reporting for this series.

This reporting project was made possible by a grant from the Fourth Estate Fund.

You can find more from the series here: Rising Waters: A series focusing on the changing climate's impact on North Carolina's coast


Benjamin Schachtman: All right, David Boraks, thanks for joining us.

David Boraks: You're welcome.

BS: So you just wrapped up working on our series, ‘Rising Waters,’ this week — and it looks at a number of different ways in which changes in the climate and rising waters have impacted our region, from high tide flooding to beach erosion and a number of other issues. But before we get into that, I wonder if you could give us a little of your background in reporting on the climate and environment.

DB: Well, Ben, I was the climate reporter at WFAE for the past several years, and the environment reporter before that, so I've actually been covering climate change for a little under a decade in some form, and a lot more in recent years. And you know, it's one of the most important global issues right now, and I'd argue that it's the most important issue for us. Obviously, it's an existential threat for our planet, but you know, it's always been covered as a global issue by national and international news outlets, and increasingly, local news outlets like WFAE, where I was, and now WHQR are also are covering it as a local story to help people understand how climate change is affecting us and how we're reacting to it. And so I think it's a very important story for us.

BS: Yeah, and I think people who listen to this three-part series will recognize, you know, many of the locations and frames of reference that you deal with. Can you tell us, you know, what were some of the big takeaways from this series, for people haven't had a chance to check it out yet?

DB: Well, it takes a look at climate change and sea level rise and coastal erosion and the effects of that in our area, here at the coast in North Carolina. And I think the big takeaways are that this is happening and sea level rise is accelerating, and it's something that's affecting a lot of different aspects of our lives, but some of the things that we talk about in the series – that is beach erosion, threatened structures that are falling into the ocean, like we've had news about recently, the erosion of sand from beaches that's requiring more frequent and more expensive beach rebuilding projects and high tide flooding or sunny day flooding, which is, you know, being made worse by sea level rise — that those things are all happening right now and they are getting worse. And I think that's something that some people who live in areas that are directly affected probably already know about this, but many other people may not even know that there are places on our coast right now that are already having to adapt and deal with this.

BS: So, along those lines, I mean, what are some of the things you think people misunderstand or don't understand about reporting on climate change, the work you've been doing for the better part of the last decade?

DB: I guess one of the biggest things I've run up against is that people think it's a political issue and that it's, you know, something where we take sides on this. But, when I first started covering the climate full time, my editor and I talked about how this is not an issue that there's much disagreement on among the scientists. This is basically settled science, and so we didn't want to cover the debate about whether climate change is real or not. The most recent polls from the Yale Center for Climate Communication show us that more than 70% of Americans believe that climate change is happening, and so that's not what the story is. The story is what's happening to us because of climate change, and how are we reacting to it?

BS: So I want to ask, was there anything that surprised you, given your experience in this round of reporting for this series?

DB: I've been following a lot of these issues for a while, but I think the fact that some of these problems are becoming more frequent and more expensive is kind of the big takeaway for me. All of these — the high tide flooding is happening more often, houses seem to be falling into the ocean at a more rapid rate, you know, we had seven since 2020 — all of these issues are becoming more pressing for us and looking ahead, you know, sea level has risen afoot since in the past century, according to federal scientists, and it's expected to rise another foot in just the next 30 years. And if we look at these problems that we talked about in Rising Waters, imagine these things becoming even more frequent and even more pressing for us. Well, anything else you would want to add? I guess one other thing is that, as I mentioned, we are trying to adapt to these changes in our environment, and this is an issue for local communities and local officials, and I think the ones that are most proactive right now are already taking steps to build up the funding to handle things like more beach renourishments, more frequent beach renourishments, they're taking steps to be ready for whatever is coming, and others are not doing that. And I think the lesson here is that we all need to be thinking about how this is going to affect us in the future, and how we can get ready for it.

BS: Alright, well, David Boraks, independent reporter who produced the Rising Waters series for us this week on WHQR, thanks so much.

DB: You're welcome.

Ben Schachtman is a journalist and editor with a focus on local government accountability. He began reporting for Port City Daily in the Wilmington area in 2016 and took over as managing editor there in 2018. He’s a graduate of Rutgers College and later received his MA from NYU and his PhD from SUNY-Stony Brook, both in English Literature. He loves spending time with his wife and playing rock'n'roll very loudly. You can reach him at BSchachtman@whqr.org and find him on Twitter @Ben_Schachtman.
David Boraks is an independent reporter and producer who covers climate change, the environment and other issues. He retired in early 2024 as the climate and environment reporter at WFAE in Charlotte.