Books

June 13, 2023

Book Cover, California Against the Sea: Visions for our Vanishing Coastline, by Rosanna Xia 2023 via Heyday Press.
Book Cover, California Against the Sea: Visions for our Vanishing Coastline, by Rosanna Xia 2023 via Heyday Press.

California Against the Sea: Visions for our Vanishing Coastline – by Rosanna Xia

Excerpt from Heday Press:
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.

Reviews:

“This book should be required reading for Californians—and all Americans. The fate of one state’s rising coastline, and what it portends for our future, will affect us all. Exquisite and wrenching, Rosanna Xia has written an essential book that shows us what we stand to lose.”——Lizzie Johnson, author of Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire

“Just as the coast defines the liminal world between land and sea, so too does Rosanna Xia’s remarkable book exist in the overlap between development and erosion, between geological forces and human desire, between our ambitious past and our tenuous future. It’s viscerally urgent, thoroughly reported, and compellingly written—a must-read for our uncertain times.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense World

“Fans of Xia’s work for the L.A. Times will recognize her virtuosic blend of propulsive boots-on-the-ground storytelling, explanatory reporting, and genuine curiosity and love for place. A profound and timely exploration of humanity’s various and shifting relationships to coastlines and the forces that shape them by one of the great environmental reporters working today.”—Lisa Wells, author of Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World

“Xia’s prophetic and perceptive book reveals a California coastline denied by centuries of settlers more intent on dreaming than facing the unsteady reality of the living ocean’s edge. California Against the Sea is the invitation we need today to enter a future where we learn to work with nature instead of against it. Xia’s message should be heeded everywhere ocean meets land.”—Meera Subramanian, author of A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka

The book is available for pre-order and is scheduled to be shipped September 26, 2023.

For additional reviews and ordering information:

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The Earth Transformed: An Untold History – Reviewed in the Atlantic

In his sweeping new book, Peter Frankopan looks at how the climate has changed human society—and how we have changed the climate.
Does climate change directly influence the weather we experience? Until recently—for the past 40 years or so—that question has followed nearly every major hurricane or flood, every record snowfall or heat wave. In some people, it provokes instant denial, often political or economic, often rooted in prideful ignorance…

Cover art: Forest City, Johor, Malaysia, 2017. (Photograph by Sim Chi Yin, courtesy of Duke University Press)

Vanishing Sands: How Sand Mining is Stripping Away Earth’s Beaches by Orrin Pilkey, et al – Duke | Nicholas School of the Environment

A new book from Duke University Press, “Vanishing Sands: Losing Beaches to Mining,” casts light on the shadowy world of sand mining through case studies that illuminate its disastrous impacts and a concluding chapter that proposes common-sense solutions.

Because of the tradition of viewing beaches as public land, people have historically thought of beach sand as a free and limitless resource, Pilkey and his co-authors explain in their preface to “Vanishing Sands…”

Back on Bonaire: Rediscovering Divers Paradise as a Father; A Book By Andrew Jalbert

With its protected nearshore reef system, gem-clear seas, and sweeping conservation efforts, Bonaire has earned the title it boasts on its license plates: Diver’s Paradise. Andrew Jalbert’s “Back on Bonaire,” is the story of stitching together two very different worlds in an enjoyable, funny and at times touching account of introducing his son to his beloved Bonaire.

The Batik Art of Mary Edna Fraser; A Book By Cecelia Dailey

Using fabric, wax, and dye, internationally renowned artist Mary Edna Fraser has transformed the techniques of batik from its ancient origins and forged new visions of our planet from the sky to the ocean floor ―creating wonder, awe, and an awareness of the environment.

The Magic Dolphin; A Book By Charles O. Pilkey With Orrin H. Pilkey

A lighthearted, beautifully illustrated children’s book that tells the story of two kids who rescue a stranded dolphin, caught in a fish net. The grateful dolphin rewards the kids by taking them on an adventurous, world-encircling journey, teaching them along the way about global warming, sea level rise, beach erosion and other challenges facing the sea.

Pictures Show How Modern Life Is Altering the Natural World

Every part of modern life is touched by technology, and every part of technology requires something that once came from the ground: the silicon dioxide in your cell phone, the phosphorous to grow your food, the copper in the wires that brought this article to your eyes, and a thousand other examples. This is the imprint photographer Edward Burtynsky felt compelled to capture.

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