![]() His stories of Miami Beach are particularly compelling. He documents the tremendous vulnerabilities of the region-a huge population living close to sea level on porous bedrock that sea walls cannot protect, in a region prone to the highest incidence of hurricanes in the continental U.S. Goodell devotes three of the twelve chapters of the book to Miami and Miami Beach, which have the most to lose financially from sea level rise of anyplace in the world. Water flows out of the Miami River to flood a walkway as Hurricane Irma passes through on Septemin Miami, Florida. He spent several years researching the book, and relates stories from the extensive time he spent in many areas of the world highly vulnerable to sea level rise, including Miami, New York City, New Jersey, Norfolk, Alaska, the Netherlands, Venice (Italy), and Lagos (Nigeria.) He also describes fascinating stories from his trip to the source of about 25% of current global sea level rise-the Greenland Ice Sheet-as well his trip to the Paris Climate Accord.įigure 1. He relies on story-telling and interviews with a wide range of scientists, developers, civic leaders and politicians involved in the sea level rise issue. Goodell is an excellent journalist, and his treatment of a highly technical subject like sea level rise is both highly readable and informative. “We would will need to retreat from the low-lying coastlines, but instead of a stampede, it could be a leisurely stroll,” he writes. Strong immediate action to implement the Paris Climate Accord of 2015-and to go well beyond those targets, so that we eliminate all burning of coal, oil and natural gas by 2050-might limit sea level rise by 2100 to 2 – 3 feet, instead of 6 – 8 feet. Goodell argues that if we want to minimize the impact of sea level rise in the next century, we need to stop burning fossil fuels and move to higher ground. As one of the experts he interviews puts it, “Sea-level rise is like aging. ![]() Goodell, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and the author of the excellent 2011 book How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate, argues that there is little we can do to stop the inexorable rise of the world’s oceans due to human-caused global warming-though we may be able to slow the rate of sea level rise later in the century. The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World-the title of Jeff Goodell’s new must-read book on sea level rise-says volumes. ![]()
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