The Truly Catastrophic Consequences Of Letting Nature Take Its Course

Kate Orff, a landscape architect and MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" recipient, is working hard to protect the rest of us from the inevitable consequences of a Green House Gas supercharged climate. The New Yorker's profile of Ms. Orff and her already considerable body of work is mandatory reading for anyone with a horse in the race to attempt to protect our coasts from the constant flooding that is imminent. That means all of us.

Much of Ms. Orff's work focuses on the use of sloped rock formations and "reef sheets" to attenuate wave energy that would otherwise batter our coasts. The "reef sheets" create an ecosystem like one that might exist were it not for the damage we've already caused. Ms. Orff calls these "reef sheets" "Living Breakwaters". Yes, the new ecosystem created by the "Living Breakwaters" will be different but not as catastrophically different as what would be wrought by unabated coastal storms and, as Ms. Orff explains, the current situation is