The Water Will Come: A Must-Read Book on Sea Level Rise

[malaise]

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/water-will-come-must-read-book-sea-level-rise
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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. 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. As one of the experts he interviews puts it, “Sea-level rise is like aging. You can’t stop it. You can only do it better or worse.”

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. 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. “We would will need to retreat from the low-lying coastlines, but instead of a stampede, it could be a leisurely stroll,” he writes.

Goodell is an excellent journalist, and his treatment of a highly technical subject like sea level rise is both highly readable and informative. 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. 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.

[Persondem]

1. In most cases the people who need to read this will not. Sadly enough.

Thank you for posting about it. K & R

[guillaumeb]

2. Recommended.

The Koch brothers live in Kansas. Far from the sea, and they undoubtedly feel that their immense wealth will protect them.

For people living on islands, and in Bangladesh, the rich have no real feelings for them.