Product Description

Americans love to colonize their beaches. But when storms threaten, high-ticket beachfront construction invariably takes precedence over coastal environmental concerns -- we rescue the buildings, not the beaches. As Cornelia Dean explains in Against the Tide, this pattern is leading to the rapid destruction of our coast. But her eloquent account also offers sound advice for salvaging the stretches of pristine American shore that remain.

The story begins with the tale of the devastating hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, in 1900 -- the deadliest natural disaster in American history, which killed some six thousand people. Misguided residents constructed a wall to prevent another tragedy, but the barrier ruined the beach and ultimately destroyed the town's booming resort business.

From harrowing accounts of natural disasters to lucid ecological explanations of natural coastal processes, from reports of human interference and construction on the shore to clear-eyed elucidation of public policy and conservation interests, this book illustrates in rich detail the conflicting interests, short-term responses, and long-range imperatives that have been the hallmarks of America's love affair with her coast.

Intriguing observations about America's beaches, past and present, include discussions of Hurricane Andrew's assault on the Gulf Coast, the 1962 northeaster that ravaged one thousand miles of the Atlantic shore, the beleaguered beaches of New Jersey and North Carolina's rapidly vanishing Outer Banks, and the sand-starved coast of southern California. Dean provides dozens of examples of human attempts to tame the ocean -- as well as a wealth of lucid descriptions of the ocean's counterattack. Readers will appreciate Against the Tide's painless course in coastal processes and new perspective on the beach.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #122630 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 296 pages

Amazon.com
Castles built on sand are doomed, they say. But in our hunger for an ocean view from the living-room window, we keep building things we expect to last on beaches that never stay still. In Against the Tide, Cornelia Dean, science editor of The New York Times, outlines the global coastal management crisis and all the elaborate engineering methods developed to stave off erosion--revetments, sand-trapping devices, seawalls, groins and jetties, even artificial seaweed beds. In clear, journalistic style, she explains how all of these devices have failed to stop the inexorable march of coastal erosion. And they've failed at a staggering cost to taxpayers, despite the fact that they're usually deployed to protect private property. The world's sandy beaches continue eroding, and nowhere is this more visible than in the U.S., where oceanfront construction has been proceeding at a fast and furious pace for decades. Of course, the perfectly natural process of erosion is only considered a "problem" if it threatens buildings or property. Dean writes: "There is a kind of constituency of ignorance, people who have so much invested in coastal real estate that they do not want to hear how vulnerable it is."

Using examples from Galveston to Cape Cod, and a few places on the West Coast, Dean shows how building each "protective" structure has led to the need for more protection in a game humans are destined to lose to the ocean. "American political institutions," she writes, "are ill-suited to the indeterminacy and elasticity of nature." Part of the problem is that people are reluctant to admit that natural processes threatening our carefully planned and paid-for civilization are good and necessary parts of a dynamic ecosystem, and our efforts to prevent them will invariably buy us more trouble. Dean believes that it's time to make peace with the rising sea level and stop fighting nature. Against the Tide should be required reading for waterfront property owners, coastal zone managers, the Army Corps of Engineers, and beach lovers everywhere. --Therese Littleton

From Publishers Weekly
An eloquent, forceful plea to save America's rapidly eroding beaches and coastline, this revelatory and disturbing report from the science editor of the New York Times is reminiscent of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in its sense of urgency and moral passion. From the motels and T-shirt shops of beachless Florida "beach towns" to Los Angeles County, most of whose beaches are artificial, the story Dean tells is the same. People build on unstable landforms, then attempt to avoid the inevitable consequences through quick technological fixes: concrete seawalls, artificial reefs, sand-trapping steel groins, jetties, underground "dewatering" systems of pipes and pumps, etc. These techno-fixes may prolong the life of coastal buildings, but they usually accelerate erosion and environmental degradationAand taxpayers end up spending tens of millions of dollars to protect the property of those who knew they were building or buying in an unsafe place. Dean's book is a lucid primer on coastal engineering; it is also an appalling tale of shortsightedness, greed and willful ignorance, as property owners and developers square off against environmentalists and beach preservationists. It opens with a dramatic account of the hurricane that blasted Galveston, Tex., in 1900, leading the city to make a "Faustian bargain" by erecting a seawall that hastened the beach's demise. Dean sees Hurricane Andrew's devastation of the Gulf Coast in 1992 as a warning about overdevelopment of the shore and the failure to make houses hurricane-resistant. As the book's title suggests, Dean's call for restraint in building, strategic retreat and conservation of our shores goes against the current, but it is well worth listening to, especially as many climatologists predict rising sea levels due to global warming. Photos. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-Our beaches are eroding at an alarming rate and nothing we seem to do helps. As Dean points out, our very actions themselves are to blame for the narrowing of our coastal areas. This engaging yet informative book opens with an account of the 1990 hurricane that struck Galveston, TX, and left 6000 people dead in its wake. In a chapter called "The Big One," the author relates fascinating facts about recent hurricanes, including the implausibility of a total evacuation of heavily populated communities and the response of the local authorities who, as a result, have begun building shelters in public buildings. Illustrations throughout the book are used to explain some of the scientific principles of coastal erosion. One graphic photo clearly demonstrates that when a shoreline erodes, "building a seawall will destroy the beach." In essence, what Dean espouses is that we stop overdeveloping and interfering with the natural state of our coastal areas. Beaches, given enough time, will replenish themselves. YAs interested in environmental careers and beach lovers of all ages will get caught up in this book. Logically arranged and written in a straightforward style, it enables readers to look at the familiar with new and knowledgeable eyes.
Jean Johnston, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Mandatory Reading
This book is mandatory reading for anyone living in a coastal community. Well written and well researched, it is helping our Beach and Dune Committtee understand what options to consider. Thank you very much for an interesting and informative book.

Interesting but unfair
Extremely biased toward a non-property owner viewpoint. Although the government is spending money to keep sand and retain structures, it is also acting in the interest of public safety. Also, many government agencies are limiting what property owners can do with their own money, on their own property, to save their investments. Both sides of the argument are not presented evenly.

Another Sad Tale of How Humans Foul Their Nests
An astounding book that will not be read by enough people. Ms. Dean provides us with a well-researched book on the physics (don't let that word throw you off; she makes it all quite understandable) of beaches, and how, in one century, we have managed to destroy them. Quite simply the ocean cannot and should not be conquered. While capable of causing intense damage to our shores, the ocean, given time, will also inevitably repair the damage it has caused. But, build houses, hotels and other structures as well as jetties, revetments, seawalls, and groins on the beaches and you will ultimately destroy them.

The truly sad part of this book is not just that we have destroyed thousands of miles of our beaches, but that we are led by ignorant, self-serving politicians and greedy commercial and private interests to build even more damaging structures on what's left of our shores. To add insult to injury the taxpayer continues to be dunned for the money to pay for continued "beach management" (read: mismanagement), and for rebuilding destroyed structures in areas where nothing should be built. I no longer have the slightest sympathy for people whose shorefront homes are destroyed by storms. Move inland where you belong.

A must read for the concerned citizen.