BOOKS
SEA CHANGE Longmont author grapples with the flaws in our attempts to fight a warming planet BY BART SCHANEMAN
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he new nonfiction book Over A SHRED OF HOPE the Seawall is about what writ- After the reporting was done, Miller er Stephen Robert Miller says he started writing the book from terms “disastrous adaptation.” In a a place of anger. He was mad at polinutshell, that means the delusional cymakers and government officials, actions humans take to try to control “everybody who’s not doing anything nature as they adapt to changes in to stop this crisis from happening climate and environment. now. I was just pissed off at so many The book looks at three parts of the people in positions of power,” he world: tsunami seawalls in Japan, says. “We’re doing so little.” reengineered waters in Bangladesh and artificial waterways supporting farms and cities in Arizona. Miller, who lives in Longmont, came to Colorado about five years ago as a Ted Scripps Fellow in CU Boulder’s Center for Environmental Journalism program. This book is a direct result of what Miller pitched to land the fellowship. While he was at CU, Miller spent much of his time researching water law in the American West, which became the Arizona section of the book. He was also auditing an environmental course taught by Amanda Carrico, who has done extensive research in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Miller asked to tag along on her next research trip to Dhaka. “That was the first time I really saw maladaptation happening on Over the Seawall by Stephen Robert Miller was a large scale on the ground outreleased Oct. 31. Courtesy: Island Press side of the U.S.,” he said. In the Bangladesh section, Miller Then Miller’s life changed in a describes how humans have arromajor way. He became a father to a gantly tried to control sea tides and son about six months ago, just as he the Ganges River Delta through huge was working through the copy edits engineering projects that have had on the book. disastrous results for the local popula“When I found out that he was tion. coming, I found it difficult to be so That part, along with the opening negative and cynical. I was still angry, Japan section, meant Miller had to but I found myself feeling like I have report and write two-thirds of the book to find some shred of hope in all of about countries where he didn’t speak this,” he says. “I can’t bring a kid into the language. And he reported most the world with the mindset that he’s of it during the COVID-19 pandemic. screwed.” BOULDER WEEKLY
sea walls the Japanese built before the tsunami in 2011 were maladaptive, according to Miller, because they created a false sense of security that led people to stay behind after the earthquake. “They felt the walls would protect them,” he says. Nearly 20,000 people died in that disaster. “The Japanese reaction to the tsunami is to build even bigger walls that wouldn’t have even stopped the wave that came,” Miller says. “It’s a … tragic example of our tendency as people to just build a tall wall to solve the same problem without thinking about the deeper impliLongmont author Stephen Robert Miller wants to recations of what’s causing the evaluate how we think about potential solutions to the problem and why we’re vulneraclimate crisis. Credit: Andrew Cullen ble to it in the first place.” Miller acknowledges that a book What choices we leave for the like this can be pretty heavy on the generations to come after us is one doom and gloom, especially when he of his biggest concerns with maladpoints out the solutions that people aptation. have engineered aren’t actually going “It limits our choices in the future. to save us. We make decisions now that have “But my whole point is that it’s our these ramifications that go on down tendency to fall for simple solutions the line,” he says. “They don’t only that keeps putting us in these prediccause other environmental problems aments,” he says. Plus, there’s … they also limit the amount of money to be made in building huge options people in the future have to embankments or desalination plants address those problems. or large-scale dams. “The last thing I wanted to do is Miller points to natural solutions as leave my kid with fewer options to better options than man-made fixes. deal with this crisis when the crisis is In Bangladesh, for example, the peoonly going to get worse.” ple know how to plan their agricultural ‘INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE’ seasons when the river floods, rather than try to control it. Over the Seawall is Miller’s way to “It’s a great example of people get people to care about the longworking with nature using what might term impacts of their decisions, be called ‘Indigenous knowledge,’” he whether that’s trying to build monsays. “When I talk about working with strous walls along the coast of Japan nature or nature-based solutions, it in a futile effort to stop ocean rise sounds cornball and soft and gooey, and tidal waves, or the unsustainable but it is really powerful.” agricultural practice of pumping water into the Arizona desert to grow alfalfa for horses overseas. “[Having a child] made it even more ON THE PAGE: Over the imperative to me that we don’t fall into Seawall: Tsunamis, Cyclones, these traps of making short-sighted Drought, and the Delusion of decisions, only thinking about our Controlling Nature author immediate interests,” Miller says. event with Stephen Robert Adapting our environment to handle Miller. 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. problems like tidal waves in the pres28, Boulder Book Store, 1107 ent moment is much different than Pearl St. $5 adapting for future generations. The NOVEMBER 23, 2023
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