Officials spark backlash with plans for iconic coastal cliffs: 'Every year ... it gets sketchier and sketchier'

Fearing the effects of rising sea levels on the Sunset Cliffs, the city of San Diego is proposing to move parking lots from the bluffs onto the street, crowding traffic into a one-way street. Unfortunately, this workaround does little to address the root of the problem.

What's happening?

Rising sea levels along the Pacific coastline have gradually increased the severity of the waves that batter the shore, and cliffsides such as those in San Diego are at risk of becoming unstable. 

"I surf the cliffs a bunch and it's like every year … it gets sketchier and sketchier," one citizen reported to the Voice of San Diego.

Since vehicle parking at the lookout points adds unbalanced pressure and puts cars and people alike in danger in case the cliffs give out on their own, city officials have decided to shift parking inland onto one lane of a formerly two-lane street.

In other words, after parts of the Sunset Cliffs crumbled during the rainfall last August, the city is encouraging individuals to avoid the unsafe areas as much as possible through these modified parking arrangements while doing little to protect the cliffs themselves.

Why is cliff damage concerning?

Pacific sea levels along the California coastline have risen by approximately eight inches in the past century, accelerated in recent decades by a changing climate, per California state agencies. As our global temperatures continue to rise as a result of our planet-heating carbon pollution, ice sheets melt in our oceans, driving water levels higher.

Although reorganizing vehicle parking near the Sunset Cliffs may protect civilians from crumbling terrain, the proposal is addressing only a symptom of the larger issue. The effects of rising sea levels don't stop at crumbling cliffsides, after all; higher and warmer waters likewise supercharge our extreme weather events, increasing the destructive capacity of hurricanes, floods, and the like.

"They've gone completely nature-based solutions which is another way to say, 'Do nothing,'" the Peninsula Community Planning Board's Eric Law said, per the Voice of San Diego, in reference to San Diego's approach to Sunset Cliffs. To this point, San Diego has not tried to build hard infrastructure or sea walls.

What's being done about rising sea levels?

Measures like readjusted parking may work in the short-term, but in addition to proving inconvenient for drivers now confined to fewer lanes, such procedures can't hold up forever against a coastline that's gradually moving inward.

Keeping up with the latest climate news and lowering your reliance on pollution-heavy fossil fuels at home can help you make a more eco-conscious impact. 

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