California's Eroding Coastline Alison Maas

On this final episode, I talk with Dr. Gary Griggs. A foremost figure in research and policy on California’s coastal erosion crisis, Dr. Griggs discusses with me all things California coastal erosion. We discuss what has exacerbated the current coastal erosion crisis, what is being done to address it, what has worked and what has failed, and where we go from here. Linked below are select texts from Dr. Griggs’ capacious body of work on the subject and provide a wonderful jumping off point to learning about our coastal crisis.

Dr. Griggs is Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. His research is focused on the coastal zone and ranges from coastal evolution and development, through shoreline processes, coastal hazards and coastal engineering, and sea level rise. Recent research projects have focused on documenting and understanding coastal erosion processes including temporal and spatial variations in rates of retreat; evaluating the effectiveness of coastal protection structures and the impacts of coastal engineering projects (seawalls, jetties, breakwaters) on coastal processes and beaches; evaluating beach processes and quantifying littoral cell budgets and human impacts on these budgets; impacts of extreme events such as El Ninos) on coastlines; the impacts of sea level rise on California's beaches and coastline; and coastal policies to reduce the impacts of hazards and sea level rise.

Many thanks to the Bilinski foundation and the Bilinski fellowship at Bodega Bay Marine Lab for providing the funding that made this series possible.

Links: department website for Dr. Griggs https://eps.ucsc.edu/faculty/Profiles/fac-only.php?uid=griggs ; link to his LA times article https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-06/california-coast-sea-level-rise-climate-solutions ; link to Coasts In Crisis: A Global Challenge https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520293625/coasts-in-crisis ; link to Dr. Griggs’ numerous other published books https://www.ucpress.edu/search.php?q=Gary+Griggs ; Santa Cruz Coast https://www.santacruz.org/things-to-do/beaches/

On this episode, I talk to Dr. Bonnie Etherington. Dr. Etherington and I discuss the role of environmental activism and literature in countering the settler violence at the root of contemporary coastal and oceanic crises. We also discuss US militarization and imperial mapping in the Pacific, re-imagining mapping through poetry as a decolonial practice, and how narratives are integral to confronting issues that face our oceans and our relationships with the ocean today. And Dr. Etherington reminds us that most importantly, reading, citing, and foregrounding indigenous authors, activists, and thinkers is essential to any approach combatting climate change.

Bonnie Etherington earned her PhD in English from Northwestern University, and was the CU Boulder Environmental Futures Postdoctoral Fellow from 2020-2021. After teaching literature for the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, Bonnie is now a Lecturer in Literary and Creative Communication at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. Bonnie is at work on a book manuscript entitled One Salt Water: Writing the Pacific Ocean in Contemporary Indigenous Protest Literatures, and her scholarly work is forthcoming in The Contemporary Pacific, and recently published in New Oceania: Modernisms and Modernities in the Pacific (Routledge, 2019). Her first novel, The Earth Cries Out (Vintage NZ, 2017), was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and long-listed for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Bonnie was born in Aotearoa New Zealand and raised in West Papua.

Many thanks to the Bilinski foundation and the Bilinski fellowship at Bodega Bay Marine Lab for providing the funding that made this series possible.

Links:
Dr. Etherington’s website/ link to her novel https://www.bonnieetherington.com/book ; selected works of Epeli Hau‘ofa https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/we-are-the-ocean-selected-works/ ; writer Bio and link to book for John Waromi https://idwriters.com/writers/john-waromi/ ; poetry Collection/ website for poet Craig Santos Perez http://craigsantosperez.com/books/hacha/ ; website for author Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (phrase “knee deep” taken from her post quoted by Dr. Etherington) https://www.kathyjetnilkijiner.com/

On this episode, I talk with Hayley Brazier. Hayley and I embark offshore as we discuss the coastal sea and how underwater cables, and undersea constructions, destabilize coastal environments. We discuss the history of the ocean floor the place where many of our most valuable technologies sit yet where we do not live. Hayley reminds us that the seas, rivers, and land are not as separate, distinct, and disconnected environments as we have come to believe.

Hayley is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at the University of Oregon and the Curator of Natural History at the High Desert Museum. Her research is situated at the nexus of environmental history and public history, the study of water resources, public lands, and the build environment. Her dissertation examines the historical development of ocean-bottom technologies along the northeast Pacific seafloor.

Many thanks to the Bilinski foundation and the Bilinski fellowship at Bodega Bay Marine Lab for providing the funding that made this series possible.

Links: Hayley’s author website https://hayleybrazier.com/ ; Coos Bay Oregon Coast https://visittheoregoncoast.com/cities/coos-bay/ ; Article on Facebook’s abandoned drilling equipment off the Oregon coast https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2020/08/facebook-abandons-broken-drilling-equipment-under-oregon-coast-seafloor.html

On this episode, I talk with Jennifer Savage. Jennifer is the California Policy Manager at the nonprofit organization Surfrider foundation. Jennifer and I talk about surfing California’s beaches, finding joy in the ocean, the work of Surfrider foundation, and how involvement in on the ground (or better yet on the wave) activism helps preserve the beaches and oceans we love.

Jennifer has experience as an environmental journalist, radio personality, event organizer and freelance columnist, Jennifer spreads the word about threats and solutions to our ocean’s health. Surfrider Organization is a grassroots non-profit environmental organization that focuses on water quality, beach access, beach and surf spot preservation, and sustaining marine and coastal ecosystems. Surfrider foundation is dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s oceans, waves, and beaches for all people through a powerful activist network.

Many thanks to the Bilinski foundation and the Bilinski fellowship at Bodega Bay Marine Lab for providing the funding that made this series possible.

Links: Lanphere Dunes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanphere_Dunes ;
Surfrider Foundation https://www.surfrider.org/?gclid=CjwKCAiA24SPBhB0EiwAjBgkhrKdoxox6iOkLAw0Xq9klo1FzqQ5JuOsYPrmm2eo9gkO61RxIrXFFxoCOM0QAvD_BwE

On this episode, I talk with Dr. Elsa Devienne. Dr. Devienne and I discuss the history of Los Angeles’s beaches and how environmental histories such as her book, The Sand Rush: An Environmental History of the Los Angeles’s Beaches, can help us contextualize current environmental crisis like LA’s coastal erosion.

Dr. Devienne is a lecturer in US history at Northumbria University. Her research lies at the intersection of urban history, environmental history, and the history of gender, body and sexuality, with a focus on the 20th century. She particularly engages with the history of America’s coastlines from the 19th century beach bathing boom to today’s climate crisis. Her first book The Sand Rush: An Environmental History of the Lost Angeles’s Beaches won the 2021 Willi Paul Adams Award for best book on American history published in a language other than English. The book looks at the beach modernization campaign that transformed Los Angeles into one of the world’s greatest coastal cities, showing how the city-maintained shores for seaside leisure and the triumph of modern bodies.

Many thanks to the Bilinski foundation and the Bilinski fellowship at Bodega Bay Marine Lab for providing the funding that made this series possible.

Links: Review of Sand Rush which is currently under contract for the English version with Oxford University Press http://porttowns.port.ac.uk/the-coastal-history-blog-48-the-re-invention-of-the-modern-beach/ ; The Wall by John Lanchester https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/15/the-wall-by-john-lanchester-review ; El Matador State Beach https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=633

On this episode, I talk with Dr. Daniella Hirschfeld. Dr. Hirschfeld and I discuss coastal erosion as a spatial problem and how it is approached by environmental planning. Dr. Hirschfeld brings me through the different ways to visualize sea level rise and how, in order to plan for the future, we must make the best forward-looking choices today.

Dr. Hirschfeld is a professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Utah State University. Her research weaves together the fields of urban ecology and environmental planning to look at resilient systems.

Many thanks to the Bilinski foundation and the Bilinski fellowship at Bodega Bay Marine Lab for providing the funding that made this series possible.

Links: Dr. Hirschfeld’s department website https://laep.usu.edu/directory/faculty/daniella-hirschfeld ; Elephant Seals at Año Nuevo State Park http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523
https://www.theresiliencehublab.com/