Imagining California Event: California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline

Join us as Los Angeles Times reporter Rosanna Xia and Dr. Charles Lester, Director of UC Santa Barbara’s Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, discuss sea level rise and the challenges looming over the California coast. Xia will draw from her new book, California Against the Sea, in which deeply reported stories braid together science, policy, and the state’s social history. The conversation will explore how the decisions we make today will determine where we go tomorrow: headlong into disaster, or toward an equitable refashioning of coastal stewardship. Audience Q&A and a reception will follow.

Rosanna Xia is an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times, where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting, and her work has been anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.

Cosponsored by the IHC’s Imagining California series, the IHC Idee Levitan Endowment, the UCSB Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, the Marine Science Institute, and the Environmental Studies Program