{"id":5662,"date":"2026-04-12T07:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/?p=5662"},"modified":"2026-04-29T05:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:21:25","slug":"metzger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2026\/04\/12\/metzger\/","title":{"rendered":"Survival of the Tallest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Haley Metzger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image5662_581ec2-0d .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image5662_581ec2-0d\"><a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-scaled.jpg\" class=\"kb-advanced-image-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A landscape submerged in water save for distant tree tops and a crow perched on a stop sign in the middle ground. The weather is foggy.\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-5664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-105x59.jpg 105w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-317x178.jpg 317w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-423x238.jpg 423w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-634x357.jpg 634w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-846x476.jpg 846w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-951x535.jpg 951w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-1268x713.jpg 1268w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2026\/04\/Survival-of-the-Tallest_2025A-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,2560px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Survival of the Tallest<\/em> is meant to express a narrative about rising tides and localized wildlife extinctions through scenery of a flooding suburban landscape; the last stop sign still stands in the aftermath, but even that will rust and crumble and the crow will move on to dryer lands, just as people generations ahead may have no other choice but to abandon Maine&#8217;s coast as the oceans and the rivers swell due to a combination of melting ice caps and warming oceans. The Maine Geological Survey predicts potential inland flooding scenarios ranging from 1.2\u201310.9 feet on top of the Highest Astronomical Tide (highest possible tide when gravitational forces of the sun and moon are in alignment) of 12 feet, which is enough to flood Portland. Simply standing still against the rising tidewaters can only get one so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Haley Metzger \u00a0 \u00a0 Survival of the Tallest is meant to express a narrative about rising tides and localized wildlife extinctions through scenery of a flooding suburban landscape; the last stop sign still stands in the aftermath, but even that will rust and crumble and the crow will move on to dryer lands, just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spire-2026-issue"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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