Rising seas may sink us all

Re “ ‘Immediate action’ urged to guard against rising sea,” March 12

The notion that California can protect itself from rising sea levels by erecting dikes reminds me of the drills we did in school to “duck and cover” in the event of nuclear attack -- ludicrously naive.

If global climate change proceeds to the point of raising our sea levels 55 inches, as some predict, we will have far more urgent concerns than protecting the property values of billionaires in Malibu. We will have global crop failures and famine, disintegration of civil authority, abandonment of cities and epic migrations of displaced humans around the planet.

If there is anything we should be doing, it’s depopulating the coast, reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases and preparing our children to survive in a vastly different and very bleak landscape.

Pamela Logan

Richland, Wash.