THE NASA

This is America’s busiest spaceport, and the water is coming. Like so much of Florida, the Space 

Coast — a 72-mile stretch along the Atlantic — is feeling the threat of climate change. Some of the erosion is caused by the churning energy of ocean currents along the coastline. Hurricane Sandy, whose power was almost certainly strengthened by climate change, took a big bite in 2012, flattening an already damaged dune line that provided protection from the Atlantic’s battering.

A rising sea level will bring even greater risk over time — and perhaps sooner than most researchers expected. According to a study published last week, warming pressure on the Antarctic ice sheet could help push sea levels higher by as much as five or six feet by the end of this century.

NASA isn’t just a victim of climate change. It contributes to climate science in many ways, and not only in the data from the many satellites that orbit the planet after leaving Earth from here.

Its astronauts also help build awareness of the growing urgency of climate change. Astronaut Scott Kelly, who recently returned from nearly a year in space, took hundreds of photographs that could seem like abstract art or a dire warning; in an email interview just before his descent, he said that he had seen changes in the planet even since his previous mission in 2010.

“It seems to me there is more pollution in India and China than what I saw last time,” he said. “Definitely noticed the fires this summer in the U.S.A.; sometimes, could see the smoke all the way to Chicago.”

“Weather systems where they are not supposed to be obvious,” he added. “The fragility of the atmosphere always apparent.”

Pondering the Problem

NASA, which has at least $32 billion worth of structures and facilitiesaround the country, has been considering the possible effects of climate change for nearly a decade, said Kim W. Toufectis, a strategist who leads the master planning program for the space agency.

NASA, after all, is in the business of risk management. By 2007, “we had to acknowledge that we should recognize climate change and extreme weather as a formal risk that we should be actually managing,” Mr. Toufectis said.

With all of its expertise and its ability to make forecasts based on data, Mr. Toufectis added, “shame on us if we are not capitalizing on that.”

In fact, NASA’s climate risk extends far beyond Florida. About two-thirds of the land that NASA manages is within 16 feet of mean sea level, and much of it is near the coasts. “We are tremendously linked to the drink,” Mr. Toufectis said.