Global Warming Battle Hits Malibu Beach

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.
(More California stories.)