California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline

California Against the Sea is a gripping exploration of the devastating impacts of sea level rise on California's 1,200-mile coastline.

Through vivid storytelling and thorough reporting, Pulitzer Prize finalist Rosanna Xia delves into the human stories and ecological dramas unfolding along the West Coast.

With urgency and compassion, she examines the engineered landscapes, market pressures, and political scrimmages that shape our contemporary coastline and foretell even greater changes to come.

Xia's investigation takes readers from the beaches of the Mexican border to the sheer-cliffed North Coast, weaving together the voices of Indigenous leaders, community activists, small-town mayors, urban engineers, and tenacious environmental scientists.

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.

Don't miss this riveting exploration of the future of California's coast and our collective capacity for change.