California Rising Sea Levels Threaten Orange County Beaches

A new study released this past week suggests that Crystal Cove State Park could lose $11 million in tourist revenue due to beach erosion brought on by changing global climates.

The good news? Newport Beach is projected to gain $13 million.

Those changes wouldn't exactly happen overnight, though. Your oceanfront house is safe—for now!—but your great-great-grandchildren may have something to think about in 100 years when the sea levels rise by about 1 meter, the Los Angeles Times reports here.

Doesn't sound like much, sure, but that sole meter would reduce the width of beaches all over SoCal, so says the study's main author, Linwood Pendleton, director of ocean and coastal policy at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. You can click here to get access to the complete study, but it's behind a paywall that'll cost you $34.95, just so you know ...

The point of the study was to examine the economic impact such erosions would have on beach regions—Laguna Beach topped the "Losers" list with an estimated loss of $15 million. Meanwhile, all that displaced sand would have to go somewhere, which is how the study concluded that Huntington Beach and several other beach 'burgs would actually make money off the climate crisis, the theory being that beach-lovers would flock to where the most sand is.

The study was done on 51 public beach in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Although small beaches stand to lose tourist money, it would cost more -- $436 million for both counties -- to try to recover the damage by redistributing sand.

Here's the list of money-winners and money-losers from the study:

Winners

1. Huntington City Beach: +$16 million
2. Will Rogers State Beach: +$15 million
3. Newport Beach: +$13 million
4. Manhattan Beach: +$8 million
5. Sunset Beach: +$6 million

Losers

1. Laguna Beach: -$15 million
2. Bolsa Chica State Beach: -$11 million
3. Crystal Cove State Park: -$11 milion
4. Redondo Beach: -$10 million
5. Long Beach: -$7 million