California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline

An accessible, riveting look at how sea level rise manifests along the California coast from a star environmental journalist. Rosanna Xia was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for an explanatory piece on sea level rise (“The California coast is disappearing under the rising sea. Our choices are grim”) and her coverage of a toxic dumpsite in the deep ocean has been featured in the Best American Science and Nature Writing anthology. Fans of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush will love this book.  No trade book has addressed the West Coast as a site of threat from sea level rise, yet California tops the US coastal populations chart with 26 million people living in coastal counties. California coasts having such a large population and cultural influence make it a ‘litmus test’ for response, collaboration, and effects of sea level rise on the whole U.S., which in turn makes this book relevant on a national scale. Combines storytelling with science and a deep understanding of the workings of California politics. Specific areas in California where Xia reports from include Imperial Beach in San Diego, Monterey Bay, Pacifica, Manhattan Beach, Santa Barbara, Laguna Beach, Ocean Beach in San Francisco, Marin City, San Jose, and many more.   Helps readers conceive of what a sustainable relationship with nature looks like along the coast in the future. The level of research and reporting in this book will make it suitable for undergraduate courses on environmental planning and policy.