California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline
"An exploration of the responses that sea level rise demands along the West Coast"--
Work Information
"An exploration of the responses that sea level rise demands along the West Coast"--
"An exploration of the responses that sea level rise demands along the West Coast"--
Book Information
- Publisher
- Heyday
- Published
- 2023-09-26
- Pages
- 336 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.97 x 3.18 x 20.96 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781597146197
- ISBN-10
- 1597146196
- Price
- 6588 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Politics & Social Sciences/Politics & Government/Public Affairs & Policy/Environmental Policy
PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Winner * Golden Poppy Award Winner for Nonfiction * California Book Awards Gold Medal Winner * A Great Read from Great Places Selected by the Library of Congress * A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year * American Book Award Winner * 2024 American Energy Society's Energy Writer of the Year * An Architect's Newspaper Best Book of 2023 * 2024 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal Winner Now in paperback: a "deeply researched and reported" ( San Francisco Chronicle ) exploration of sea level rise in California that "breathes exquisite detail and dialogue" ( Science Magazine ) into the subject. "Viscerally urgent, thoroughly reported, and compellingly written—a must-read for our uncertain times." — Ed Yong , author of An Immense World "When do seawalls make sense? And when is it better to give in to the tides? [...] In California Against the Sea , Xia [...] writes about the difficult realities of trying to incorporate fairness into our tally of costs and benefits." — The New Yorker Along California's 1,200-mile coastline, the overheated Pacific Ocean is rising and pressing in, imperiling both wildlife and the maritime towns and cities that 27 million people call home. In California Against the Sea , Los Angeles Times coastal reporter Rosanna Xia asks: As climate chaos threatens the places we love so fiercely, will we finally grasp our collective capacity for change? Xia, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, investigates the impacts of engineered landscapes, the market pressures of development, and the ecological activism and political scrimmages that have carved our contemporary coastline—and foretell even greater changes to our shores. From the beaches of the Mexican border up to the sheer-cliffed North Coast, the voices of Indigenous leaders, community activists, small-town mayors, urban engineers, and tenacious environmental scientists commingle. Together, they chronicle the challenges and urgency of forging a climate-wise future. Xia's investigation takes us to Imperial Beach, Los Angeles, Pacifica, Marin City, San Francisco, and beyond, weighing the rivaling arguments, agreements, compromises, and visions governing the State of California’s commitment to a coast for all. Through graceful reportage, she charts how the decisions we make today will determine where we go tomorrow: headlong into natural disaster, or toward an equitable refashioning of coastal stewardship.
Rosanna Xia is an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times , where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean. Her breadth of work includes the highly anticipated feature documentary film, Out of Plain Sight , which she directed and produced, and her celebrated book, California Against the Sea , which received the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and a gold medal from the California Book Awards, among other honors. She was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting, and her journalism has been anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series.
Reviews
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"Where can we go/ When there’s no San Francisco?"
The words above come from a witty 1969 song about the threat that earthquakes pose to California’s long-term survival. The lyricist is concerned—in a tongue-and-cheek sort of way, to be sure—that quakes will ultimately send the California coast out to sea, submerging it beneath the waters of the Pacific. I gave some passing attention to this issue in one of my own two books about the state, but I wish I had the opportunity to read this one before I brought my own work to a close. Here the author shows us that instead of earthquakes causing the California coast’s demise, it may well be the relentless lapping of ocean water against that coastline that may be the first natural force to get the job done. In one memorable line after another the author crafts an eloquent anatomy of this threat and profiles several very creative strategies that have been mounted to avoid, or at least blunt, it. The problem in the end, however, is that the ocean never sleeps and the time available to resist this implacable coast-eroding force is running out. The author says that if Californians can get their heads on straight and work together to head off disaster before it arrives, things may again be set right. But humans are not exactly famous for heading calamity off at the pass; they are far better known for letting their ship hit the iceberg and then scrambling around to see whether there are enough lifeboats on board. It will be interesting to see how California’s coastal denizens will, in the end, go about adapting to what appears to be an unavoidably troubling future.
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Great descripton of the California coast and tidal zone.
Well written description of the California coast and the problems locals encounter with the oceans slowly raising sea levels.
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A must read from coastal residents throughout the world.
A must read for everyone who lives in California. This book would benefit anyone who is concerned with the effects of climate change, raising oceans and coastal communities survival.
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Timely, Important and Well Written
Having just stayed at an ocean-side hotel in San Diego while visiting family last December, the book really seemed well timed. We’ve purchased numerous copies and recommended it to countless others. To be prepared for the era in which we now find ourselves, understanding the history, the scope and possible solutions is essential!
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Hope, Renewal, and Belonging.
There is a different way live in today's world where the settler / conqueror mindset is all we know. A few people along California's disentegrating coast are demonstrating ways to listen and respond to nature's overpowering language. Their forward thinking and planning are ones all people, in every ecosystem, can learn from. Thank you, Rosanna Xia, for the excellent investigating and reporting. I'd like to see you narrating a documentary based on this work.