This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When governments find themselves fighting the threat of coastal erosion, their default response tends to be pretty simple: If sand is disappearing from a beach, they pump in more sand to replace it. This strategy, known …

This story originally appeared on Grist. It was produced by Grist and co-published with Fresnoland. It is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The land of the Central Valley works hard. Here in the heart of California, in the most productive farming region in the United States, almost every square …