Rhode Island’s Ocean and Coastal Magazine

Winter 2017: Economy

From the Editor

GIVE & TAKE

In the book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, an apple tree gives the boy she loves a trunk and branches for climbing when he is young, then apples for selling when he gets older, then wood for building, and finally an old stump to rest on. If we were today to write a similar poem for Rhode Island, it might be The Giving Coast, about Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, and the goods and services they provide to us. We expect the coast, unlike the apple tree of the story, to endlessly regenerate everything it brings forth.

In this issue of 41°N, we look at the economics of the coast, and the price we can put—or not—on what it offers, from sand and seafood to intangibles such as ecosystem diversity and water views. And we examine how those things are changing—such as how warming waters are bringing new fish species further north—and how people and industries are adapting, such as how innovations are transforming the face of the marine trades.

Let us know what you think.

—MONICA ALLARD COX, Editor

Write us
Please write to Letters, 41°N Editorial Office, Rhode Island Sea Grant, URI Bay Campus, Narragansett, RI 02882, or email 41N@gso.uri.edu.