California Against the Sea

Features

This book has been chosen by Jared and Julia Drake for the 2024 Community Book Initiative as a reflection of the theme, stewardship. All profits from the purchases of this book during the 2024 Community Book Initiative event (running from 5/13/24-6/10/24) benefits local nonprofit Clean Up the Lake. 

About the Book:

Winner of the 2023 Golden Poppy Award (Nonfiction)

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2023

Along California’s 1,200-mile coastline, the overheated Pacific Ocean is rising and pressing in, imperiling both wildlife and the maritime towns and cities that 27 million people call home. In California Against the Sea, Los Angeles Times coastal reporter Rosanna Xia asks: As climate chaos threatens the places we love so fiercely, will we finally grasp our collective capacity for change?

Xia, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, investigates the impacts of engineered landscapes, the market pressures of development, and the ecological activism and political scrimmages that have carved our contemporary coastline—and foretell even greater changes to our shores. From the beaches of the Mexican border up to the sheer-cliffed North Coast, the voices of Indigenous leaders, community activists, small-town mayors, urban engineers, and tenacious environmental scientists commingle. Together, they chronicle the challenges and urgency of forging a climate-wise future. Xia’s investigation takes us to Imperial Beach, Los Angeles, Pacifica, Marin City, San Francisco, and beyond, weighing the rivaling arguments, agreements, compromises, and visions governing the State of California’s commitment to a coast for all. Through graceful reportage, she charts how the decisions we make today will determine where we go tomorrow: headlong into natural disaster, or toward an equitable refashioning of coastal stewardship.

About Jared and Julia Drake:

Julia and Jared Drake are the founders of Wildbound PR, a boutique literary PR firm that specializes in media campaigns for authors, publishers, and storytellers around the globe, and Wildbound Live, an award-winning livestream and hybrid event production company based in Tahoe. 

"Wildbound" reflects what we’ve come to love about working with talented storytellers: Their tireless drive to venture into the wilderness of the mind, always on the precipice of the unknown, always daring to meet their limits in worlds both real and imaginary. They move us, shake us, humanize us, and brings us stories that explore, entertain, edify, and transform – all that within the bounds of a book.

Why Jared and Julia Chose This Book:

California Against The Sea by Rosanna Xia is a compelling exploration of the intricate relationship between humanity and nature, focusing on the battle against rising sea levels along California's coastline. As we turned the pages of "California Against The Sea," we couldn't help but feel a profound sense of urgency and responsibility. Her poignant portrayal of California's struggle against the sea serves as a powerful call to action, reminding us of the urgent need for collective action to address the existential threat of climate change.