The director of the Aquarium of the Bay is one of the founders of Future Sea Level, a project created in 2006 to raise awareness about the effects of climate change. Using nature-friendly tape, Frawley and volunteers mark off areas of public buildings where sea levels could be in San Francisco if polar caps in Antarctica and Greenland were to melt. The group’s latest installation is set for today, when they will tape up San Francisco’s public libraries. For more information, visit www.futuresealevel.org.

What makes Future Sea Level an effective tool for raising awareness about climate change? It makes the idea of climate change and global warming accessible. A lot of times, people cannot really grasp complicated scientific theories or data sets. With the Future Sea Level installation, people have a visual of what could happen. It makes science friendly and puts it into a language that people understand.

How long will the installations stay on the libraries? The tape we have isn’t really made to last for that long, so it will probably come down in a day or two. The idea with the installations is to really direct people to our Web site, where they can learn more about climate change.

Is there a scientific method to where the tape is marked on the buildings? The tape we wrap around the buildings is not going to be exactly where sea levels might be. It’s more of an abstract concept to raise awareness.

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What is the future for the Future Sea Level project? We’re talking about doing these installations more frequently, and in different places. It could be the North Bay, the South Bay, even inland. There is still plenty of work to do, and we have the volunteers and participants who want to put in the effort.

wreisman@examiner.com