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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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Global Warming Battle Hits Malibu Beach

Wealthy homeowners pay millions for temporary solutions

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(Newser) – Malibu's scenic Broad Beach is vanishing between the rising sea and the sea walls homeowners are building to protect million-dollar properties from global warming, the Los Angeles Times reports. Ocean levels are projected to rise at least a couple feet in the next century, wiping away this and many other iconic beaches in California, where an inch ocean rise claims 50 inches of land.

Scientists suggest developments be pulled inland to let tides chisel a new coastline out of what's now land. But Malibu's high-profile residents won't part with their hefty investments so easily. They're spending more than $10 million to import sand and build sea walls—which only strengthen wave damage upon rebound. "In the end, Mother Nature and global warming will win," predicts a climatologist.

As hillside development looms in the mountains of Malibu. Beaches are disappearing between homeowners' sea walls and rising ocean levels.
As hillside development looms in the mountains of Malibu. Beaches are disappearing between homeowners' sea walls and rising ocean levels.   (AP Photo/Ric Francis)
Singer Mandy Jiroux, right, of the Beach Girtz, performs in Malibu. The city is home to many Hollywood celebrities.
Singer Mandy Jiroux, right, of the Beach Girtz, performs in Malibu. The city is home to many Hollywood celebrities.   (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
Melting glaciers and ocean warming threatens to wipe away California's iconic beaches.
Melting glaciers and ocean warming threatens to wipe away California's iconic beaches.   (AP Photo/Ric Francis)
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No matter how much concrete they pour, all of those sea walls and houses will end up in the ocean. - Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

It's not going to be a matter of who owns the beach.
It's going to be that
there will be no beach. - Robert T. Guza, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

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