A parking lot has already been torn away, several buildings are uninhabitable and the railroad tracks are partially undermined: In San Clemente, California, the effects of climate change have arrived and the coast is eroding. “I could cry,” said one resident.
Along one of the world’s most beautiful railroad routes, on the California coast, local residents can watch as the Pacific Ocean engulfs beaches, homes and even railroad tracks. It is visible evidence of the erosion caused by climate change.
Not so long ago, the tourist train route along the Southern California coast was separated from the sea by wide beaches. But heavy swells washed away the sand. High waves are now sloshing over the rails on which the “Pacific Surfliner” transports more than eight million travelers every year.
Without a beach, the rail line between San Diego and San Luis Obispo was no longer protected from Tropical Storm Kay when it swept the coast in September. Parts of the rails were washed away and the route had to be closed due to urgent repair work.
Steve Lang could “cry,” he says. The 68-year-old San Clemente resident regularly crosses the rails on his way to surf: “Every day I come here and look at the misery,” he says.
In San Clemente’s Cyprus Shore luxury development, where ex-President Richard Nixon lived for a long time, the other residents are also uncomfortable. Without the beach as a buffer, the slope on which Cyprus Shore was built is slowly being eroded by the sea, and the houses are sliding down. The parking lot at the cliff has already collapsed, two villas with cracked walls have become uninhabitable. “Each house was worth at least ten million dollars,” says Lang.
The fact that the water is slowly penetrating is not just a problem for San Clemente, says Deputy Mayor Chris Duncan. “The California coast as a whole is threatened by climate change and erosion.” That’s 2000 kilometers. Erosion is a natural phenomenon, but scientists say it will be accelerated by global warming, leading to more violent storms and rising sea levels as a result of melting ice caps and glaciers.
By 2050, $8 billion to $10 billion worth of roads and railroad tracks could be under water in California. According to a 2019 study by the California State Legislature, additional infrastructure and buildings worth between six and ten billion dollars are likely to be in a flood hazard zone.
In San Clemente, the local transport company is currently trying to stabilize the track bed. Tons of rock are being dumped each day to reinforce the embankment – a $12 million project expected to last more than six weeks.
According to Deputy Mayor Duncan, “a lost battle”: As early as September 2021, an unsuccessful attempt was made to secure the tracks with 18,000 tons of rock, he says. “Although the slope is stabilized temporarily, vast amounts of sand continue to be lost” as the waves bounce off the hard boulders, taking the sand with them. Instead, he wants to use federal funds to replenish the beaches.
Some advocate a more radical solution to save the railway line. “The best thing would be to move them away from the coast,” says geologist Joseph Street. “But of course that’s a lot of work, very expensive.” And the houses behind the tracks remained unprotected.
“Many of our city planners and decision-makers have put off the problem for too long,” criticizes Stefanie Sekich-Quinn from the environmental protection group Surfrider Foundation. She also advocates moving the railway line. In California, however, there are only a handful of such initiatives. For example, in San Diego, a hundred kilometers further south, a $300 million project to move the railway line further inland was presented there in July.
In San Clemente that would only be the last resort, says Duncan. “People want elected officials like me to work to save our homes and our railroad tracks – not just give up.”