Can Seawalls Save Us? – the New Yorker

Sea wall drains, Prachuap Bay, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand (by Troup Dresser CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

Pacifica, California, just south of San Francisco, is the kind of beachfront community that longtime residents compare to Heaven…Pacifica embodies one of the central disagreements about rising seas. Fight or flight? Stay or go? Flight can seem unimaginable. But, if we try to fight the ocean with rock and concrete, it will cost us—and it may not work…

When Climate Adaptation Backfires – Discover

The River Thames Flood Barrier (by Andrew Price CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via

In the scramble to combat climate change, so-called solutions can cause more harm. An IPCC 2022 report warns of these maladaptations.

Around the world, people are building levees, shoring up dams, digging canals and constructing infrastructure to confront the impacts of climate change. Most of these investments will likely save countless lives and protect property, but some will inadvertently add to the problems they are trying to address…