Liz Koslov in VICE: This Is What America Could Look Like When Our Coasts Are Under Water

Managed retreat is a proactive, intentional shift of civilization away from an environmental threat. Some cities are building walls against sea level rise, but UCLA professor Liz Koslov points out the deficiencies of such a solution in this VICE article.

Building walls also summons images of a dystopian future. “You could end up with these walled city-states and then everyone else is just left to fend for themselves,” said Liz Koslov, an assistant professor at the UCLA Department of Urban Planning and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “These protected cities would be seen as too big to fail and increasingly become the provinces of the wealthy.”