By: Giorgia F.
Photo from: New America
In his 2017 book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, Jeff Goodell tackles the issue of sea level rise that is already threatening cities across the globe. The book opens in a Miami, circa 2037, that has been ravaged by the sea, the city no longer home to countless sleek highrises overlooking the Atlantic Ocean or iconic beach fronts but instead filled with flooded streets and abandoned houses (5-8). From this powerful scene forward Goodell illustrates the very real dangers and disastrous effects of rising sea levels and how a lack of action will turn this fictional story into a grim reality.
Throughout the book Goodell leads the reader on a tour of cities around the world, some rich, some poor but all facing the perils of sea level rise that are only expected to worsen in the coming decades. He manages to touch on a variety of issues, from inadequate infrastructure to slow-moving international relations, demonstrating that sea-level rise is not just an environmental issue but will affect nearly every aspect of society including real estate, economics, politics, and humanitarian work.
Goodell discusses the current and future implications of sea level rise on a variety of real estate properties, from sleek multimillion dollar mansions in Miami to bamboo houses built on stilts in Lagos. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if sea-levels are rising, leading to flooding and higher storm surges, all those houses, apartments, and condos on the beach are going to be affected in a very negative way. What makes Goodell’s book an insightful read is his focus on the nuanced issues surrounding these doomed buildings, examining the implications of classism, questioning the legacy of a “get rich quick” attitude, and challenging the role of climate change deniers on the current industry. Throughout the book Goodell points out the cruel irony of two coexisting socioeconomic worlds, where the rich get priority when it comes to ensuring that residents will not be displaced in the coming years from sea level rise. Take for example the plan to build a sea wall around lower Manhattan, an expensive project aimed at buying time to protect the wealthy rather than a true solution for sea-level rise (152). Through thoughtful examples such as this one and discussions with local experts in the field, Goodell connects the real estate factor with the economic factor and illustrates that money is oftentimes valued over people’s livelihoods.
Politics too, like real estate, has many economic motivations. Goodell spends time dissecting how climate deniers in state legislatures are making it near impossible to pass climate legislation to halt sea-level rise. But why deny the cries of countless climate scientists? Well for many places across America there is a lot at stake, mainly economic livelihoods. Goodell draws on this connection in his discussion of Virginia where the fossil fuel industry has a tight grip on the state’s economy (198). Admitting that climate change is a real and pressing danger means having to cut back on fossil fuel consumption drastically, which would damage the state’s economy, causing discontent between constituents and their elected leaders who let this happen. And so politicians with this short term thinking in many parts of the country go on pretending that anthropogenic climate change is a crisis for another era.
Goodell also investigates how the looming threat of sea-level rise will affect mass amounts of displaced people. He quotes the International Organization for Migration that predicts there will be 20 million climate refugees by 2050 (182). Goodell questions where these people will go given much of the western world’s apprehensiveness towards immigration and the fact that a “climate refugee” does not exist in international law (181-182). The people whose homes will surely be washed away must migrate somewhere but in an international system that values sovereignty and power over everything else, who will decide which migrants go where? These are very multifaceted questions which need urgent solutions, as the threat of sea-level rise intensifies every day that substantive action is not taken.
By tackling sea level rise related issues in many different realms of society and urban environments across the globe, Goodell drives home the fact that this is not a problem for one group of people nor for one country, this is a challenge that affects, in some way, every individual on the planet. Therefore, this urgent issue needs innovative solutions that address sea-level rise in an equitable manner, ensuring it is not the world’s poorest people who are paying the price for decades of environmental mismanagement responsible for the current situation. All in all, I found Goodell’s book to be an eye-opening and insightful read. He brings up aspects, discussed above, which may not be the first thought to come to mind when considering sea-level rise. This book made me more aware of sea-level rise related climate issues and inspired me to learn more about the issue-something that all of us could benefit from doing.
Discussion Questions:
Why is it important to understand the more nuanced implications of a major issue like sea-level rise?
In your own personal experience have you learned much about sea-level rise/see press coverage of the issue? If not, why do you think this is?
Work Cited:
Goodell, J. (2017). The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World. Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company.