The Water Will Come is a frightening book about the realities of global climate change. The horrible changes already taking place will only get worse as we move forward. A very informative book

A well-researched and thought out book on climate change, particularly as it relates to the upcoming rising sea levels--a future that is not a probably, but a definite shall.

Instead of being complete doom and gloom about the future of the world (it is going to suck, particularly for the poor, marginalized communities living in endangered areas), Goodell acknowledges that there are ways humanity and global leaders can mitigate the damage.

Not stop the effects of global warming, but perhaps slow it down and work around the rising sea instead of fighting it.

Reducing carbon emissions to decrease our sky-rocketing carbon footprint and CO2 emissions (this won't negate the couple centuries of damage already done, but will at least reduce future damage), and move to higher ground--and support those communities and countries living in areas where there is no higher ground to move to.

I also liked that Goodell points out that climate change is not new. There's an ebb and flow to the Earth and its climate. But. And big but here--this new global warming is being considerably sped along by humans and the technology we have created.

And much of the mega-disaster that is to come, slowly, ever so slowly (or fairly rapidly if a large shelf in the Antarctic collapses which is the worst case but probable scenario) can be planned for.

We just need to focus on the long term in addition to all of the short term disasters that happen along the way, and pressure our political leaders to do better and take action.

High hopes.

Jeff Goodell is an author and journalist, best known for his work with Rolling Stone. The Water Will Come: rising seas, sinking cities and the remaking of the civilised world is his latest book, in which he travels the world, talks to the experts, and sees first hand how rising sea levels are affecting coastal cities.

This is one of those books that mix on the ground reporting with background science and history, as the author ambles around Venice, or follows Arctic scientists around glaciers. Because Goodell is a well respected journalist, he gets access where others wouldn’t, and we get candid conversations with engineers, city mayors, property developers and politicians. He accompanies president Obama on his trip to the Arctic. He’s at the Paris climate talks. We hear from John Kerry, mayor of New York Bill de Blasio. It gives the book real authority.

It’s diverse too. Our first stop is Miami, a city the book returns to later as an archetype of unsustainable growth. We visit Greenland to investigate the ice melt and the causes of sea level rise, the Marshall Islands to see the effects on small island states. In New York we discuss the Big U, something I’ve profiled on the blog before, and how the city is preparing for flooding after the wake-up call of Sandy. In Venice the author visits the MOSE tide protection barrier, a huge project that has taken decades and billions of Euros to build. Unfortunately in the 50 years it has taken to construct, the climate science has changed and it almost certainly won’t be big enough to secure the city’s long term future. In each of these places we get insights into the reality of what is happening, and also the fraught politics behind the scenes.

For example, one chapter deals with the US Navy and the enormous Norfolk Navy base. It’s where America parks its aircraft carriers and the base is vital to the country’s combat readiness. But it already floods and will eventually have to be abandoned. Unfortunately it’s in Virginia, which is coal country and therefore climate skeptic, so the official position is that the problem doesn’t exist. The state won’t help to fix the flooded roads, and politicians strip out any armed forces spending on climate adaptation. The Navy has built walls and raised piers higher, but it has to hide the reasons why or Republicans won’t fund it. They can talk about persistent flooding, but a mention of climate change and the discussion ends. The level of institutional denial is extraordinary.

Miami is struggling with a different kind of denial. The city has low taxes and relies on endless new development to remain solvent. Even though the authorities know it’s unsustainable, making too much noise about flooding would scare the real estate moguls elsewhere and the city would be bankrupt. Likewise, the local economy relies on tourists coming to lie on the beach and ride jetskis. It’s really important that nobody knows that the water table is rising, septic tanks are leaching, and the bay is full of shit. The tourists wouldn’t come any more if they knew. But then if you’re constantly hiding the problem, how can you ever mobilise the budgets to fix it?

It’s a catch-22. Unless Miami warns people about the risk of rising seas, it will drown. But if it raises the alarm, the money will evaporate and it won’t be able to afford the sea defences. And then it will drown.

At least Miami has the money. Many other places don’t, as Goodell makes very clear: “rich cities and nations can afford to build seawalls, upgrade sewage systems, and elevate critical infrastructure. Poor cities cannot.” And even in poorer cities there is a divide. In the book’s one foray to the developing world, we visit luxury new coastal developments in Lagos, safe behind their own seawalls. On the other side of town are floating shanty towns that Goodell calls “a blueprint for how to live in the age of rapidly rising seas”. And yet the floating slums are routinely cleared and burned, leaving thousands of people homeless in the process. As far as the authorities are concerned, the future of the city is with the luxury apartments.

My one criticism of this fine book is that the chapter on Nigeria isn’t enough to get a global picture. Goodell understands climate justice and that the worst effects of climate change will fall outside of the US. He writes that in terms of risk from sea level rise, “Guangzhou, Shanghai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and other Asian cities are at the top of the list”, and it seems like an oversight not to have visited at least one of them.

That aside, this is a well written and eye-opening survey of the effects of sea level rise, and the knots we are tying ourselves in over how to solve it.

I live in an island. I have seen the effects of coastal erosion firsthand. This book chronicles what will happen when glaciers melt and sea levels rise. However, he also offers solutions based on his conservations with various experts who study this phenomenon.

Rising waters. Sinking cities. Global warming. Climate change. This is what we have to look forward to. In the new book, The Water Will Come, author Jeff Goodell spells it our pretty clearly. This book will open your eyes and awaken a desire to do something.

Goodell starts out by giving a hypothetical scenario for what might happen in Miami in the future, following a hurricane. It’s pretty eye-opening stuff. Sea levels are rising, an undeniable fact that should be a wakeup call to us all.

The first chapter examines flood stories from our history. There are some pretty remarkable things being learned by scientists studying these events. The author then visits various low-lying cities around the world to report on what’s happening on the ground. For example, the Marshall Islands may cease to exist as their lands all sink beneath the sea. Venice, Italy, is already experiencing rising sea level effects. Miami Beach is also. These are just a few of the cities and countries that the author shows us in this book. This is not reading for the faint of heart. This is scary stuff and it is reality. Even if we stop adding carbon to the atmosphere, the effects will not change much since it took so long to get to this place. The globe will keep on warming due to the pollution already in the atmosphere. There is little we can do to stop it. We have to start thinking about this now, while there is still time to move away from the coasts and relocate cities to higher ground. Or start building more resilient structures in these low-lying areas, ones that will be above the suspected high water level that is coming. We’ve built so much infrastructure near the coasts and these area are now vulnerable. Those drained wetlands in Florida are now in danger of being reclaimed by the ocean. The same story is happening around the world, as the author shows us. The ability to respond to this crisis will be affected by the financial costs. Some communities simply cannot afford to build expensive sea walls or other protective structures. Will those communities be abandoned? What about the more affluent cities? Will even they be able to respond in time?

The writing style is informative and conversational. It’s an easy-to-understand style that will appeal to all readers. You won’t need a science degree to comprehend the concepts the author portrays here. The scenarios are detailed and understandable. For example, what happens if there is 20 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century? How many people are displaced? Where would they go? What economic, social, and other consequences are there with this many climate refugees displaced? All these questions and more are addressed.

The book is pretty thorough and I felt like it was detailed enough without being “preachy.” We all should know that this is happening and we all should be prepared. Books like this will help. This book needs to be required reading for all government officials and anyone who is building structures near the coasts. The author did a fine job researching this and bringing it to a wide audience. The water definitely will come. The question is, what do we do about it? Are we prepared enough? Let’s hope this book awakens a new desire to do something about this problem, which will eventually affect us all, worldwide.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance reader copy I received in exchange for my honest review.

The water will come. Anyone who has ever lived near water knows that water will find its way in if it has a mind to. This book is largely about rising sea levels caused by climate change and melting glaciers and its impact on our society, for the truth is our climate is changing and causing unusual weather patterns and problems around the world.

Personal experiences: Our midwest home has been flooded twice by creek water in the last ten years after torrential rain storms. And while we were in Aruba recently, which has a desert climate, the area was hit by a thunderstorm that dumped three inches of rain in about an hour, blowing the manhole covers off sewers and flooding the streets with a foot of water. The local residents were amazed--they NEVER get rains like that.

Whatever happened to nice, gentle, soaking rains? Do you know what it's like to be scared when it rains? Even as a child growing up in suburban Detroit, I remember sitting on the upper steps of our basement watching sewer water backing up and wondering how high it would come. That problem was later solved by a twelve-town drain system but the frightening memories still linger.

The National Flood Insurance Program is $23 billion in debt. Who is paying for flood insurance claims? The taxpayer, of course. We are building where we shouldn't be. We are building in floodplains, on reclaimed swamps, on the oceanfronts even though higher sea levels are being predicted and hurricanes happen frequently.

Jeff Goodell is a journalist who has interviewed scientists, climate experts, city planners, politicians, flood victims, architects, geo-engineers, etc. to further his understanding of what the situation is and what might be done to solve the problems. For the water will come.

"If we want to minimize the impact of sea-level rise in the next century, here's how we do it: stop burning fossil fuels and move to higher ground. We wouldn't even have to stop burning fossil fuels tomorrow--if we did it by 2050, that would be good enough. It wouldn't entirely halt sea-level rise, but it would avoid the worst of it."

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for providing me with an arc of this important new book for an honest review.

Throughout this book, Goodell explores geographic regions and innovative technologies to see what can be done to reduce the impact of rising water. Ultimately, there are some questions that emerge:

- How can we depoliticize climate change and show the real and impending impact on human civilization?
- How will governments address buy-outs, flood damage, and relocation of peoples, towns, and cities?
- How will governments and societies address climate refugees, whose numbers may swell far above and beyond political refugees?
- How can we stop being so short-sighted with our thinking about investment defending communities against climate change?
- Will the Arctic be a new battleground in the fight for fossil fuels and developmental resources?

Overall, this is a well-researched book. I was pleased that Goodell explored not only Western (primarily American) concerns, but also those of the Marshallese and Nigerian. I did feel like the chapters dealing with Miami real estate developers and the role of nuclear and military facilities on the Eastern Seaboard to be a bit of a slog, but worth it to get to the other chapters.

It's October and in theory I should be reading something scary. Then again, this is pretty scary. Jeff Goodell, a journalist and a climate expert, creates a hauntingly vivid picture of a very wet world to come. Traveling the world, visiting coastal cities across the globe that can potentially become the next Atlantis, he talks to experts and locals to gain a well rounded perspective of the threats they are facing and the realities of their lives. This isn't a mere alarmist reporting, it's a thoroughly researched and compelling account of a very serious and fairly imminent danger, it doesn't just raise questions, it offers solutions or possibilities thereof by showing how it's being addressed around the world. It's very well written and reads at an almost thriller like pace (no small feat for nonfiction), depressing, of course, but it inspires thinking and certainly a conversation starter, ever so timely and then at the same time...ever so frustrating, because this is precisely the sort of thing the majority of population dismisses either due to their inability to intellectually grasp the concept or greed or a combination of both. Climate change deniers would label this book as sensationalist journalism. And those who know the score don't need further proof or convincing. So that's the frustrating angle...the message will not reach the target audience, nothing will improve, it fact recent politics have done such a tragic backslide, that alone will probably take ages to undo. It may not be too late yet, but for anyone of reasonable intelligence following the news it's difficult to stay optimistic. It may very well be aquaapocalypse after all. Why not read this smart informative account of some play by play international water action and then sit back and maybe rethink a Miami condo purchase. Thanks Netgalley.

I would recommend this for science book clubs or book clubs looking for hot topic non-fiction. It is easy to read while still offering the science behind climate change.

Come Hell or High Water

The USA, it seems, is the last bastion of climate change deniers. There is the whole rest of the world, and there are Fox News viewers. In North Carolina, it is illegal claim the sea level is rising. The CIA’s Center on Climate Change and National Security simply disappeared when a Congressman discovered it. Congress will pounce and remove any reference to climate presented to it or which it stumbles upon. The president – well, you know.

Jeff Goodell has traveled the world looking at the ways people and nations are preparing for sea level rise. Because it is well underway, and painfully so. He has examined Venice, Rotterdam, the Marshall Islands and also New York City, the Jersey Shore, Florida, and Norfolk, where the biggest American naval base is going under, visibly. The differences in approach are astounding. While the rest of the world is making huge changes or planning for escape, Americans are hunkering down. They won’t change, come hell or high water. A lot of them expect a technological miracle to come along before it’s too late. So they’re just standing by.

Globally, 145 million people live less than three feet above sea level, “creating generations of climate refugees who will make today’s Syrian war refugee crisis look like a high school drama class production“, Goodell says. Interestingly, climate refugee has no meaning, particularly to governments. It is not defined. No law references it. It does not exist. Just the refugees – an expected 200 million of them by 2050.

Goodell says if all seven billion of us jumped in the ocean, the water would rise about 1/100 of an inch. If all the snow in Greenland melts, the oceans will rise 22 feet. And that’s just Greenland. The business of sea levels rising by six inches over the next 80 years is laughable to scientists. They’re looking at 55 feet.

The cognitive dissonance is gigantic. There are insane conversations about raising buildings and roads, or flood insurance and dunes, as if they could make Florida livable when it’s under (salt) water. With no farms, no streets, airports or ports, there will be no food, water or electricity and no way to live, no matter how much insurance you have or how high the building is off the (former) ground. Saving a condo tower does not mean Miami will be viable. But Miami is booming, and the buildings are going up without any changes from previous designs. No laws require taking flooding into account. Developers sell their projects before they break ground, leaving the condos to greater fools. Rather than cause a panic and tell builders they can’t, America provides heavily subsidized flood insurance, encouraging them to do more. The rich sue their local governments to rebuild irrational roads that wash away nearly every year. The poor are simply cut off from services. It is Swiftian madness.

Goodell reports it all matter-of-factly. He has attended the conferences, met with the scientists for really in-depth conversations, and even interviewed President Obama for an hour, alone, when they were in Alaska a year ago. (He was the first sitting president to visit, and it was about moving whole communities inland.) Obama acknowledged his inability to change general attitudes, having to bite off tiny programs and changes instead. He knows full well it is not enough. Such is the system.

The Water Will Come is a global tour in which the USA comes off looking not so good. But it will suffer the same fate, regardless, so it probably doesn’t matter much.

David Wineberg

Review: THE WATER WILL COME by Jeff Goodell

An articulate and thoroughly-considered explication of sea level rise, THE WATER WILL COME is scientific journalism as it ought to be, explaining science, geological history and engineering in an understandable fashion. Mr. Goodell never resorts to scare tactics; his understated and factual approach to climate change, global warming, melting of ice sheets, and consequent inescapable rise of sea level is frightening in itself, and should serve as a wake-up call across the globe.