The Water Will Come

Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World

By: Jeff Goodell

Narrated by: Ian Ferguson

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

An eye-opening and essential tour of the vanishing world

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 upward 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 12 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.

©2017 Jeff Goodell (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"In this engaging book, environmental writer Goodell points out that while sea levels have always risen and fallen, the current rise is driven primarily by the dramatically accelerating melting of the arctic ice caps, and with so many cities on seashores, this will be devastating." ( Booklist)

"Jeff Goodell has taken on some of the most important issues of our time, from coal mining to geoengineering. In The Water Will Come, he explains the threat of sea level rise with characteristic rigor and intelligence. The result is at once deeply persuasive and deeply unsettling." (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Sixth Extinction)

Thought provoking

Gloomy but very well researched and written. I especially enjoyed the summaries of sea-level structures built (or being designed) across the world.

Great Start

How about a little disaster porn to get you on the path to Climate Awareness and Climate Studies. This isn’t a comprehensive study on the coming effects of sea level rise but it isn’t meant to be. It’s meant to scare the crap out of you, and I hope it does. I enjoyed the narration a lot, I’ve seen reviewers saying they didn’t but I thought it was great. Overall, an enjoyable light-hearted reading of humanity’s looming existential crisis.

Sobering...

Well written and hard to put down. Paints a grim picture of what our actions have done and what our inactions may do to our coastlines. Makes me want to learn and understand more about the issues.

An Important Book for All of Humanity

Jeff Goodell has written a riveting book. Once I started listening, I didn't want to stop. The impact of climate change is even worse than we thought, and worse than previous scientific predictions anticipated. The book is extremely well-sourced and documented. I can't recommend this highly enough. The only drawback is the narrator. Ian has a pleasant voice, but he over-enunciates. At first, I noticed it a little bit, but by Chapter 8, it became distracting. When narrators read books, it sounds grating when they pronounce "A lot of people will be affected" with a long "a," such as: "AY lot of people will be AYffected." And when they say "thee" instead of "the." It just is not the way people speak in conversation. Most humans say "thuh" instead of "thee," and "uh" instead of "ay" as in "I'm going to uh movie." There are very slight pauses between many words in a sentence so that the impression of over-enunciation wore on me, and sometimes I would miss a few sentences because "Thee. impact. of. AY. rise. in. sea. level" got in the way. As a former radio and TV news anchor and reporter, who also hired and trained reporters and anchors, I think I'm qualified to make this critique. Pleasant voice, but smooth it out next time.

Game changer

A vast and sobering narration of the challenge rising sea levels pose to the continuation of human societies along the seas and elsewhere. A clarion call to those who care about the future of humanity, especially those on the margins. Who will care for those without the resources to adapt? Where is the political courage and creativity to reimagine and potentially relocate the places people call home along the coasts? Jeff Goodell provides all of the necessary context and nuance to begin responding to those questions and more. Fantastic narration to boot!

very interest book. I'm afraid of the future now!!

this doesn't work. I can type all the information I want so just going to make up stuff.

Loved it!

Beautifully written and very much to the point: we either deal with the truth of water rise or sink in the rhetorical lies! Thanks for a great book, concise information and the fearful TRUTH!

Fact today about tomorrows future

Gives good insights into what is more than likely going to happen in the future with cities and rising ocean and sea water levels.

Thought provoking

This was an enlightening book. Lots to contemplate after reading. Take home message, for those of us who love water-Build higher and be prepared!!

Should be required reading

Superbly researched and thoughtful book about what will happen when the waters come and what we can and are/are not doing to stop it.
Goodell takes us around the globe stopping at cities threatened by or already suffering the effects of sea level rise. He interviews scientists, government officials, and residents to find out what is happening, what they would like to happen, and what they believe the outcome will be.
At times, the information is optimistic but for the most part it is sobering, revealing the hubris that has gotten us to this point and may very well be our undoing.
Extremely well written and objective presentation of the facts. Narrator was also fantastic