Carp Without Cars

I didn’t see it when it originally aired back in March, but this video segment from LA’s PBS affiliate, KCET, does a really good job of explaining some of the issues behind adapting to sea-level rise in southern California:

I’ve added a new item in the “Pages” section of the site’s righthand navigation: Climate Change Impacts #1: Sea-level Rise. I plan to do more pages eventually, covering some of the biggest climate change issues I think Carpinteria will face in the coming years, especially the “big three” issues of sea-level rise, reduced availability of fresh water, and price spikes in food and fuel.

Among the things I talk about on the new sea-level rise page are a report prepared for the California Energy Commission in 2009 called The Impacts of Sea Level Rise on the California Coast. It includes this chart:

There’s a lot more detail on the page, including discussion of beach loss and the ways we might respond to it. I make the argument that defending against sea level rise by building dikes and seawalls is likely to be an expensive and problematic strategy, while a managed retreat, if we start early enough, could be relatively cheap and effective.

I’m interested in what people think about this.

Again, see Climate Change Impacts #1: Sea-level Rise for more detail.