The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World

Written by Jeff Goodell

Narrated by Ian Ferguson

An eye-opening and essential tour of the vanishing world in the age of climate change and rising tides.

What if Atlantis wasn't a myth, but an early precursor to a new age of great flooding? Across the globe, scientists and civilians alike are noticing rapidly rising sea levels, and higher and higher tides pushing more water directly into the places we live, from our most vibrant, historic cities to our last remaining traditional coastal villages. With each crack in the great ice sheets of the Arctic and Antarctica, and each tick upwards of Earth's thermometer, we are moving closer to the brink of broad disaster.

By century's end, hundreds of millions of people will be retreating from the world's shores as our coasts become inundated and our landscapes transformed. From island nations to the world's major cities, coastal regions will disappear. Engineering projects to hold back the water are bold and may buy some time. Yet despite international efforts and tireless research, there is no permanent solution-no barriers to erect or walls to build-that will protect us in the end from the drowning of the world as we know it.

The Water Will Come is the definitive account of the coming water, why and how this will happen, and what it will all mean. As he travels across twelve countries and reports from the front lines, acclaimed journalist Jeff Goodell employs fact, science, and first-person, on-the-ground journalism to show vivid scenes from what already is becoming a water world.

“An immersive, mildly gonzo and depressingly well-timed book about the drenching effects of global warming, and a powerful reminder that we can bury our heads in the sand about climate change for only so long before the sand itself disappears.” —Jennifer Senior, New York Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Oct 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781478904045

Jeff Goodell

Jeff Goodell is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith. Goodell’s memoir, Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family, was a New York Times Notable Book. The New York Times called his most recent book, Big Coal, “a compelling indictment of one of the country’s biggest, most powerful and most antiquated industries ... well-written, timely, and powerful.”

Reviews for The Water Will Come

[jefware · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Goodell travels around the world visiting places of historic note that are doomed to sink beneath the waves.

[neverstopreading-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mr. Goodell, at the outset, says that if you're a climate denier, this is not the book for you. Its audience is not those who do not accept the notion of climate change. It does not intent to make the case for it; rather, it describes both what is already happening in towns like Miami, Venice, and Tom's River, NJ, and what will begin to happen elsewhere in the coming decades. It also looks at various possible solutions and reactions to the problems.

That being said, if you are a denier, I think this book could be a wake up call. Perhaps you've done some research and you're not convinced of the evidence of climate change. Perhaps you think it may be a problem, but you have more pressing problems facing your family today, this week, and this year. Or perhaps the idea makes you nervous and you don't want to think about it; you don't want it to be true (nobody does). Yet, the seas don't care if you're not convinced, if you have other problems, or if you're uncomfortable.

Read this book, and consider the consequences of inaction.

[kukulaj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A quick snapshot of some of the consequences of sea level rise over the next decades and centuries. Goodell spends a lot of time in Florida, in Miami Beach especially, but gets to lots of other places - Alaska, Greenland, Virginia, Venice, the Marshall Islands... he talks to lots of folks with different perspectives. Probably the big lesson is that, while the problem is monstrous, it is almost impossible just to acknowledge politically, never mind taking any real effective action.

It's a fun quick read and certainly a good wake up if you have been snoozing.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sea level rise is starting, and it’s going to be bad. We’ll be lucky if it’s only 6 feet by the end of the century, and even that represents millions of people displaced. Goodell visits various places, including Florida where they are still just hoping for a bigger sucker to buy their expensive houses and also counting on a government bailout, bolstered by judicial rulings suggesting that the government engages in a “taking” of their property if it, for example, fails to rebuild a storm-washed-out road that is the only way to reach their property. Lagos offers an example of trying to adapt in poverty, and while the houses are more movable/less of an investment, there are still problems such as corrupt governments kicking people out instead of helping them. Big warning: rising water will be shitty, polluted water as it encounters things like septic systems and graves.

[maquina_lectora · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Last month (February 2018), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a technical report in which it was found that over the last several decades, annual frequencies of high tide flooding are linearly increasing in 31 locations in the US, mostly along the coasts of the Northeast/Southeast Atlantic and the Eastern/Western Gulf of Mexico, and to a lesser extent, along the Northwest and Southwest Pacific coast. By 2100, under the Intermediate Low Scenario, high tide flooding will occur ‘every other day’ or more often under and within the Northeast and Southeast Atlantic, the Eastern and Western Gulf, and the Pacific Islands. In the words of Margaret Davidson, founding director of NOAA’s Coastal Services Center (CSC), “Today’s flood will become tomorrow’s high tide.”

Eventually, if fossil fuel burning continues at current rates, the number of Americans living in homes that flood daily would jump to 13 million. More than 6 million of them would be living in Florida.

Jeff Goodell, a journalist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, has been reporting on climate change for years. Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York in October 2012, was a transformative event for him. The storm surge occurred near the time of high tide along the Atlantic Coast. This contributed to record tide levels, at 8.99 feet on top of tides almost twice that of its nearest rivals. Jeff Goodell started thinking about this. What if the water didn’t go away? What would be the impact of rising sea levels on coastal cities? He also wants to makes us think deeply about this issue. Can we overcome the willful blindness on sea-level rise and on climate change in general? CO2 levels are higher than they’ve ever been in the history of human life and as long as human beings have been in this planet. Big changes are going to happen in the world no matter what we do, whether we will “sell our SUVs and ride skateboards to work tomorrow,” we’re already facing a rapidly changing planet, he writes.

In his book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities and the Remaking of the Civilised World, Jeff Goodell visits Miami, Venice, New York, Rotterdam, Nigeria, Alaska, and Greenland to explore the risks these cities and regions are facing from rising seas. Especially for Miami and the surrounding areas, rising sea levels would be a potentially disastrous problem. Miami does not need storms to cause flooding (as in the case of Sandy in New York), as flooding from high sea levels can occur on sunny days due to high tides and the city’s low topography. But it is not just Miami. It works good as an illustration, but all coastal cities, including, New York, London, Calcutta, Mumbai, Tokyo will be in danger from rising seas.

It remains difficult to predict how the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets will respond to continued increased temperatures. West Antarctica, for example, continue to lose mass, but other parts of the Antarctica receive more snowfall from the increased moisture in the warmer air.

But, the water will come. The biggest question is, how high will it go and how fast it will happen. It will be an incremental process. The rising sea levels will not stop in 2100; they will continue rising in the following centuries as the sea continues to take up heat and glaciers continue to retreat. And the water, it is not going to be a pretty, clean water that you would like to go swimming. It will be a dirty water, full of chemicals and sewage, the kind of water that raises a lot of questions about diseases, and even drinking water because sea-level rise could cause saltwater intrusion in coastal aquifers.

Building walls to defend cities from rising water could be one solution. It is expensive but it is doable. New York, along with other adaptive measures like dunes and flood gates, is considering it. Venice is already building a wall. The city sank by 23 centimetres during the 20th century and its governors describe the problem as critical. The high water damage the city and cause disruption to the inhabitants. When the high tide season arrives, the streets of Venice become blocked and the residents have to walk on wooden planks in order to stay above the water. Hence, the multibillion-dollar effort to install flood-protection walls that can be raised to block incoming tides. The MOSE project (Mose is the Italian word for Moses, and an acronym for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico), was designed 25 years ago, and it has been under construction for ten years but has been dogged by delays and corruption. In 2014, 35 people were arrested, among them the then major of the city.

“The simple truth is,” writes Jeff Goodell, “human beings have become a geological force on the planet, with the power to reshape the boundaries of the world in ways we didn’t intend and we don’t entirely understand”. As the waters rise, millions of these people will be displaced. We need, therefore, a vision for the future. A vision of how to live with water. Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi, founder of the firm NLÉ, envisions a future in which coastal dwellings are built on platforms stacked with flotation devices. The impact of climate change is now day-to-day reality. Only by addressing the challenges of climate change we’ll be able to mitigate urban flood risks and disasters.

[nancyadair-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jeff Goodell traveled the world to report on how rising sea levels are impacting human society across the globe. His new book The Water Will Come takes readers to shrinking Alaskan glaciers with President Obama and into the flood-prone homes of impoverished people living in Lagos, Nigeria.

"By that time, I'll be dead, so what does it matter?" Quote from a Florida real estate developer, The Water Will Come

I long wondered how bad it would get before people broke down and changed how we live and do things. I consider how Americans gave up comforts during WWII rationing, all pulling together for a great cause we all believed in.

I don't see that happening today.

As Goodell points out, "fossil fuel empire" Koch industries money has swayed government. Private citizens can recycle and lower the heat and ride bicycles but the impact is small. As long as governments are more worried about big business than national security endangered by climate change we can't alter what is coming.

What? you ask; national security?

Well, consider that military bases across the nation and world are located in areas that WILL FLOOD. Like the Norfolk Naval Base, the Langley Air Force Base, and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility! Along with the financial district of New York City and expensive Florida beach front homes, we will be losing the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site in the Marshall Islands, where 12,000 Americans operate space weapons programs and track NASA research.

So if the loss of Arctic ice and habitat and the Inuit way of life doesn't concern you, perhaps this information will.

So many issues are raised in the book. Consider: We have not established how to deal with climate change refugees. Where are these people going to go? Countries in Europe, along with the U.S., are closing borders--the same countries whose fossil energy use is the primary cause of climate change behind rising sea levels! What is their responsibility?

There are a lot of ideas of how to deal with rising sea levels, including the building of walls and raising cities. It seems, though, that people are more interested in coping with the change than addressing the root cause of climate change. We just don't want to give up fossil fuels.

The book is highly readable for the general public. Although the cover photo made me think of an action disaster movie, the books is a well-researched presentation of "fact, science, and first-person, on-the-ground journalism."

I received a free book from the publisher through Goodreads.

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Most of the big stories here will be familiar to anyone already following the greatest story of our time, but what makes it worthwhile is Goodell's interviews with individuals in power, like Miami politicians and real-estate developers. I only wish he could have spoken with the hot-house lizards at Heartland or the Koch brothers. But as Goodell says up-front if you don't believe in climate change the book is not for you. Goodell sees the coastlines diverging into wealthy zones who can afford to pay for mitigation (dams, pumps etc) and the rest which is left to the sea. Sounds about right. The only question is how long the Federal government will foot the bill. This is a worthwhile look at the latest developments and thinking on sea level rise by a journalist who has been covering it for years.

[davidwineberg · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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