California adopted new sea-level-rise guidance for local and state planners today.TLDR: It won’t be apocalyptic in the short-term, but it’s bad, and you should pick your path now.By design, the Ocean Protection Council’s document is more diagnostic than prescriptive. It doesn’t really say what to do about existing infrastructure like Big Sur’s portion of Highway 1 that keeps falling into the ocean. Nor does it mention the most foolproof — and controversial — way to reduce risk: “managed retreat,” or simply moving inland.Rather, it updates sea-level-rise projections, ranks their likelihood and suggests deciding what to do with coastal projects based on their importance and life frame.Some experts and environmental groups are concerned it doesn’t go far enough in offering managed retreat as an option.“It feels like a little bit of a worrying trend,” Laurie Richmond, a professor at Cal Poly Humboldt and a co-chair of the university’s Sea Level Rise Institute, said in an interview. “I’m proud of our state, and I think we’re real leaders on a lot of this, and there’s a lot of support for sea-level-rise planning and innovative thinking, but I don’t want us to backslide.”Keep reading
