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A coastline erodes as sea levels rise. Long Beach, California. Photo by Joshua Frank.<\/p>\n
This week in the Anthropocene<\/p>\n
The first major swell of the year pummeled Southern California this week, and onlookers flocked to Balboa Peninsula in ritzy Newport Beach to watch adrenaline junkies attack the Wedge \u2013 a mutant wave that ricochets off a rock jetty, forming a steep, heavy wall of water<\/a> that accelerates and breaks chaotically. Only the bravest (craziest?) dare to face it down.<\/p>\n A wild storm system, nearly the size<\/a> of the United States, took shape in the central South Pacific last week and hurled massive wave energy toward California and Baja, Mexico. It was the perfect setup to awaken the sleeping Wedge and the lore and danger that accompany the deadly<\/a>\u00a0break. As the big swell arrived on Tuesday, lifeguards were already\u00a0rescuing<\/a> daredevils from the rough waters.<\/p>\n However, amid all the excitement, er, stoke, as we surfers call it, lies a coastline that continues to be chewed up by high tides, large swells, and rising seas. The Wedge, for example, is slowly encroaching on multimillion-dollar beachfront property, forcing the City of Newport to bulldoze mounds of sand onto the beach in hopes of fending off erosion. It\u2019s a relentless problem that is set to worsen in the years ahead as climate breakdown continues.<\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s not only this stretch of the Orange County coast that\u2019s in danger of having its beaches swallowed by the ocean. In Long Beach, where I live, sand is continually brought in to protect pricey homes along the city\u2019s peninsula from flooding as the ocean expands as the icebergs melt. It\u2019s a conundrum<\/a> plaguing much of California. Malibu, Dana Point, San Francisco, Seal Beach, and many other coastal cities are experiencing severe erosion, prompting them to adopt novel approaches, often trucking in sand as a stopgap to protect property. Taxpayers usually foot the bill to protect some of the country\u2019s most expensive real estate from the wrath of climate change.<\/p>\n The California Coastal Commission has been sounding the alarm, but few are listening.<\/p>\n The agency that regulates coastal development\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0that sea-level rise in the state \u201cwill affect almost every facet of our natural and built environments.\u201d If greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace, we could see\u00a0sea levels rise<\/a> by up to 8 inches over the next eighty years, or, under the worst-case scenario, by up to 7 feet by 2100 and 13 feet by 2150. NOAA notes<\/a>\u00a0that high-tide flooding is now nearly 900% more frequent than it was just 50 years ago.<\/p>\n Much of this depends on the rate of ice shelf melting \u2013 and melting it is. As Robert Hunziker recently\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0in CounterPunch, the \u201cDoomsday Glacier\u201d in Antarctica is acting up.<\/p>\n That\u2019s\u00a0very, very bad news<\/a>, not just for California\u2019s 840-mile coast, but for the entire world.<\/p>\n In the best-case scenario, California will still be violently whalloped in the years to come. In the worst-case scenario, two-thirds of Southern California\u2019s beaches could be lost<\/a> by 2100 unless there is significant, rapid intervention. The situation isn\u2019t much better up north. The Public Policy Institute of California explains<\/a> that what\u2019s unfolded in the San Francisco Bay illustrates the peril we\u2019re in. The Bay Area faces a $105 billion shortfall to fortify its vulnerable coastline.<\/p>\n In Los Angeles, it will cost $6.4 billion<\/a> to adapt, $246 million<\/a> in Long Beach,\u00a0and up to $1 billion<\/a> in San Diego. The only reasonable option is to relocate homes away from the coast, but the rich aren\u2019t ready to budge.<\/p>\n This, as you are likely aware, is among the most expensive real estate in the world. Homes in Malibu average<\/a> $5.9 million. Homes in Newport Beach? An average<\/a> of $9 million. The closer you are to the water, the higher the price and the greater the risk that someday your lavish pad will be flooded by rising seas.<\/p>\n There\u2019ll be no escaping climate chaos. Warmer oceans also mean stronger, more intense storm systems, like the one that brought huge waves to So Cal this week. Larger swells mean greater damage to this embattled coast. Combine all of this with increasing sea levels, and it\u2019s a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n Back in Long Beach, I grab lunch and head to the beach. As I unwrap my burrito, I watch large dump trucks pile up a hill of sand while a tractor moves and spreads it down the peninsula. Waves don\u2019t batter this beach like they do at the Wedge down in Newport because a breakwater a mile and a half out blocks wave action here. Even with the seawall, a lack of natural sand movement and rising sea levels have made the area vulnerable to frequent flooding. Not if, but when the next 100-year flood hits this stretch of coast, at least 1,900 homes in Long Beach, worth over $1.3 billion<\/a>, will be impacted. Many will be destroyed.<\/p>\n There may be no stopping the ocean from warming and the seas from rising, and I am not in the camp that believes taxpayers should continue paying to protect these elite coastal properties while people remain unhoused and rents continue to skyrocket. One day, the effort to protect these homes won\u2019t be enough, and the water will win.<\/p>\n Mike Davis argued<\/a> that we should let Malibu burn. Well, we should probably let the place flood, too.<\/p>\n +++<\/p>\n The UN released a report predicting that the\u00a0rate<\/a> of sea level rise will double over the next decade. The Trump administration isn\u2019t worried and is ensuring that future revelations like this never see the light of day. The lunatics in Washington have dismantled the National Science Foundation\u2019s $368 million deep-ocean observation system that tracks many things, including how the climate is impacting our oceans. This, as the government spends $12.6 billion<\/a> on a new fleet of cruise missiles. We are a country in rapid decline.<\/p>\n Want to see the future our coasts face? Check out NOAA\u2019s\u00a0visualization tool<\/a> before it\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n Lastly, summer is here, and most of the United States is facing deadly heatwaves<\/a> this week. We\u2019ve been smashing temperature records<\/a> all year, and this summer is sure to be the hottest ever. Miranda Green reports<\/a> in Atmos that we are in the early stages of a full-blown crisis as drought and heat engulf the West.\u00a0<\/p>\n +++<\/p>\n Okay, as always, a bit of good news<\/a>. For the first time ever, Americans are now getting more of their energy from solar power than from coal. I like the sound of that, well, until I realize lots of that energy came at a cost as well, to places we ought to be fighting to protect, like the Mojave<\/a>.<\/p>\n Light that up, and I\u2019ll see you in a couple of weeks when I return from Montana.<\/p>\n Sand movement to protect coastal property. Long Beach, California. Photo by Joshua Frank.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screen-Shot-2026-05-20-at-1.49.09-PM.png\")
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