Editorial: The wave that woke Ventura
Sometimes, it takes a disaster movie to awaken us to the threats around us. Colin Hoag of Ventura is no Hollywood director, but the video he filmed on his smartphone over the New Year’s weekend opened a lot of eyes to the frightful power of a raging sea.
Starting from a vantage point at the foot of Seaward Avenue, it shows from a respectful distance what at first appears to be a rather ordinary scene of high waves from a Pacific winter storm. But then comes a rogue wave that just won’t stop. It envelops the entire beach in an instant, crashes over a block wall, sends a group of spectators racing in fright for higher ground, then floods the street with salt water and sand.
The video became a social media sensation and was shown on news coverage around the world. It shows the awesome power of an unstoppable force, and it awakens everyone who sees it to the extent of danger posed by sea level rise.
No one is suggesting that sea level rise caused by climate change is what triggered the remarkable surge from an offshore storm that spawned monster waves up and down the California coast. It wasn’t a higher sea, for instance, that created such force that a World War II-era practice bomb was lifted from the ocean floor and planted on a Santa Cruz County beach. To be sure, however, climate change may have contributed to causing the conditions that enable such extreme weather events.
Still, those monster waves should awaken all of us to the threats posed by climate-driven sea level rise. This is how the California Coastal Commission sums up those threats:
“Sea level rise is expected to accelerate in the coming decades, with scientists projecting as much as a 66-inch increase in sea level along segments of the California coast by the year 2100. While over the next few decades, the most damaging events are likely to be dominated by large El Niño-driven storm events in combination with high tides and large waves, impacts will generally become more frequent and more severe in the latter half of this century.”
What was witnessed during the closing days of 2023 at Pierpont Beach and at many other points along the California coast was in fact a damaging event triggered by an El Niño-driven storm in combination with high tides and large waves.
To be frank, some had likely previously regarded sea level rise to be, if not benign, at least less threatening than other climate impacts on California. Catastrophic wildfires, prolonged droughts and heat waves such as the one in 2022 in which temperature records were set in 1,500 California locales seemed to present more clear and present dangers.
It can take extreme events to spur an awakening, but the science has long projected the effects of sea level rise on California: from one-third to two-thirds of Southern California beaches could be lost by 2100 without intervention, $17.9 billion worth or residential and commercial buildings could be inundated, 3,750 miles of roads and highways could be damaged or destroyed.
A task force made up of representatives from a dozen state agencies has prepared an action plan to build resilience against sea level rise, but much of the challenge will fall on local agencies. In Ventura County, the threats to coastal communities are obvious, but there is also a significant countywide impact to consider — the spread of seawater intrusion that could contaminate groundwater supplies.
After the events of the last fortnight, one suspects efforts to improve resilience against sea level rise will climb on the priority lists of the county and its cities The wave that was documented by that video might someday be called the wave that woke Ventura.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Editorial: The wave that woke Ventura
