Book Review – California Against the Sea: Visions For Our Vanishing Coastline

This book is an engaging and important read for everyone living in California’s coastal zone and everyone who values our exquisite coastline and beaches. Rosanna Xia, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and reporter for the Los Angeles Times, takes the reader on an intellectual, philosophical, and emotional journey as she tours the California coast from the Oregon border to Imperial Beach examining the impacts of sea level rise.

 

Photo: Jennifer Anderson

With compelling stories and references to locations and experts familiar to many Del Martians, she outlines the opportunities and hard choices Californians face as we wrestle with our vanishing coastline and how we will adapt to rising seas. She illustrates the delicate balance between preserving our beaches and protecting private property and public infrastructure: “Choosing to protect homes, roads, and other critical infrastructure behind a seawall is a direct choice – conscious or not – to sacrifice the beach in front. Each hard line of defense disrupts the natural replenishment of sand, stripping away beaches.” She illuminates the lesser-known problem of rising groundwater and how “we’ve way underestimated the flooding problem.”

 

Xia also explores solutions. Wetlands stabilize shorelines by absorbing excess water. Dunes can help delay the effect of wave erosion. A clear-eyed vision for the coastline can help us adapt to sea level rise and address other problems – including a history of displacing Indigenous tribes.

 

Xia’s book raises tough questions for communities like Del Mar, including:

  • Are we prepared to accept a future without beaches? If not, what are we willing to pay or let go of to protect them?
  • Are some seawalls worth the sacrifice? If so, which and at what cost?
  • How will rising groundwater affect our lagoons, homes and infrastructure?
  • What is our plan to prevent and absorb losses that taxpayers, homeowners, businesses, local communities and the state will face in the near future?
  • What do we want our community and coastline to look like in 10/20/50 years?
  • How will we work together to ensure our coast will be here for future generations?

Xia is asking readers to have the courage to change, and to approach sea level rise as an opportunity. We are the first generation to feel the consequences of a warming planet, and the last generation that can steer a different course. There are things we can choose if we start planning now.

 

She shares the final ruminations of Peter Douglas, principal author of the California Coastal Act: “The victories of the Coastal Act last only as long as we stay vigilant. The coast is never saved, it is always being saved.”