Two Coastal Areas Face Climate Change Threats, but Their Stories Are Vastly Different

In a multimedia piece, reporter Somini Sengupta and photographer Chang W. Lee look at the threats, challenges, and responses to climate change in two very different places: Manila and the San Francisco Bay Area.

"In both places, it turns out, how you face the rising sea depends mostly on the accident of your birth: Whether you were born rich or poor, in a wealthy country or a struggling one, whether you have insurance or not, whether your property is worth millions or is little more than a tin roof," says Sengupta.

Climate change is affecting Manila’s most vulnerable residents especially hard, the result of decades of poor land use planning throughout the metropolitan area. "Storms repeatedly sweep away spindly-legged bamboo and tin houses on the water. People flee for a while, only to come back because they have nowhere better to go," writes Sengupta.

In the Bay Area, addressing rising sea levels is complicated by politics and high property values, Sengupta points out. "Unlike Manila, Bay Area municipalities are wealthy. And many of them are already paying handsomely to fortify high-value coastal infrastructure at risk."

The situations in Manila and the Bay Area highlight the difficult questions that remain about the best responses to climate change in coastal areas, says Sengupta. "They could adapt to the rising tide, which could mean moving people out of harm’s way. Or, they could try to force the water to adapt to their needs by raising their defenses."