By Sarah Danielzadeh
Coastal communities in the United States are at risk due to rising sea levels and “retreating” from coastal communities is essential to mitigate the effects of climate change, according to Elizabeth Rush, writer of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore.
The Santa Barbara community celebrated Earth Day by virtually tuning in to hear Rush, a journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist, discuss her book, “Rising.” The book is UC Santa Barbara’s selection for the 2020 season of UCSB Reads, an annual event in which a committee of staff, students and community members selects a single book that appeals to a wide range of readers and can be integrated in UCSB’s curriculum.
This question-and-answer event was also part of the UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Forces of Nature Series, co-sponsored by the Community Environmental Council. It was moderated by UCSB environmental studies professor David Pellow.
Rush’s “Rising” discusses the people and communities most at risk from sea level rise – including those in California. “[It] explains how race, class, indigene, national origins and income levels further intensify vulnerability to rising seas,” Pellow said as he introduced Rush and the book. Rush uses storytelling and in-depth scientific research to effectively relay the urgency and impact of climate disruption, Pellow said. She has compiled moving and emotional narratives of people she met and worked with in different coastal communities in the United States from the gulf region of Louisiana to California’s Bay Area.
Environmental science professor David Pellow in conversation with author and journalist Elizabeth Rush., at a UCSB Reads virtual event. Photo by Alyssa Long
Preceding the live Q&A, the virtual audience viewed a short documentary film “Home or Highwater,'' that featured Rush. It explains that rising sea levels intensify hurricanes and flooding which then leads to a massive increase in federal spending while forcing many low-income residents to flee the places they call home. As houses along these coasts continue to be built and rebuilt, we continue to lose tidal wetlands species that are rooted in these places and perish because they cannot escape higher tides.
Rush explained that residents in coastal communities are required, by law, to purchase flood insurance in order to rebuild their homes in the same place. Often, these residents also have to use personal savings in order to keep up post-flood repairs, which leads to extreme financial insecurity – in addition to the extinction of the 50 percent of endangered species that are wetland dependent. Fortunately, the nationwide coalition of flood survivors known as Flood Forum USA connects communities with pro-bono hydrologists and environmental lawyers in order to assess flood risks and create action plans which are then presented to local politicians.
Rush emphasized the importance of “retreating” from coastal communities so that the land of these flood-prone homes could “go back to nature and act as a buffer for the storms to come.” By relocating away from these coasts, we give the tidal wetlands species that are dependent on this environment the opportunity to flourish, she said. These marshy wetlands could also put a break on incoming storms, preventing the waves from strengthening.
The journalist also provided insight into how the local community of Santa Barbara should prepare for ‘retreat’ given that many of its settlements are built on wetlands. “The first step is always a robust public conversation around retreat in advance of the high-tide flooding,” Rush said. In those places where Rush has seen residents retreat, they adapt successfully and serve the community in a transformative way. “These are the places that have laid the groundwork before the event, that sets the funding in motion to make retreat happen,” she said.
She acknowledged that these conversations about altering our way of life are difficult, and stressed that they must involve the people who consider these places home. Rush said this does not mean simply picking up and moving from Santa Barbara County, but rather identifying the lowest points of land that can help mitigate the rise in sea levels.
Rush went on to explain how public policy can affect “retreat” and the impacts of climate injustice, but she emphasized that there are already climate refugees from developing countries and the United States. “We have to take very seriously the need to help and assist people through this transition, [both in the United States] and at the global level.”
Given the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is only natural to wonder why people take the virus outbreak more seriously than climate change, and Rush was asked about that at the virtual UCSB Reads event. Rush said people react to the immediacy of the issues before them. “It is all about the timing in which these different narratives are unfolding,” she said. “There is something about Covid-19 and the urgency with which we feel we must respond, because it is unfolding more quickly than climate change.”
Rush is currently at work on another book about her expedition to Antarctica and her choice to have children as the climate crisis continues.
She answered a final question about what K-12 schools as well as colleges should be doing to teach youth about climate change, with a question that challenges older generations to listen to youth: “What can they teach us about climate change?”
Sarah Danielzadeh is a third-year English major at UC Santa Barbara. She wrote this piece for her Writing Program class, Journalism for Web and Social Media.