Retreat from a Rising Sea

April 4, 2016
Orrin H. Pilkey (The Rising Sea), a Duke University professor emeritus of geology, joins geologist Pilkey-Jarvis and attorney Keith C. Pilkey to provide further warnings about the rising oceans that accompany climate change. After explaining the mechanics behind the irreversible surge in sea level, the authors contend that coastal residents worldwide must prepare to move inland (“We can walk away methodically, or we can flee in panic”). By examining past responses to rising sea levels, particularly in Miami, New Orleans, New York City, and the Netherlands, the authors convincingly argue for retreat, taking into account expenses and repercussions, including the displacement of environmental refugees from vulnerable areas such as river deltas and arctic villages. While “immediate retreat is already being forced” on millions around the world, the U.S. largely refuses to face the inevitability of the rising ocean, instead building ineffectual seawalls, subsidizing beachfront development, and bailing out coastal homeowners. This accessible, impassioned argument considers the scientific, political, and socioeconomic dimensions of climate change and fervently presses for Americans to come to terms with the disastrous changes to the world’s oceans sooner rather than later.

June 1, 2016

In the wake of severe storms such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, this work from Orrin H. Pilkey (James B. Duke professor emeritus, division of earth & ocean sciences, Duke Univ.), Linda Pilkey-Jarvis, a geologist at Washington State's Department of Ecology, and Keith C. Pilkey, an administrative law judge with the U.S. Social Security Administration (coauthors, Useless Arithmetic) outlines how climate change and global warming are contributing to rising sea levels and urges coastal residents to retreat in the face of continued, inevitable habitat destruction. With an in-depth examination of two "doomed" cities, Miami, FL, and New Orleans, and two more prepared metropolises, Amsterdam and New York, the authors explain how these and other densely populated areas located at or below sea level are either ignoring or confronting the growing challenges they face in dealing with the effects of climate change. While the narrative is bleak, it does provide some hope with suggestions for action that concerned citizens and policymakers can take, although the authors still caution that time is running out. VERDICT An important book for those interested in climate change, particularly the effects it will have on sea level rise and cities, and storms of increasing intensity and frequency.--Venessa Hughes, Buffalo, NY

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