What would you think if I told you Miami is expected to be under water by 2100? Unbelievable, I agree, but it’s true. Jeff Goodell’s ‘The Water Will Come’ discusses just that.
Jeff Goodell is a fairly well known author, he has written a few other books and has written hundreds of columns for The Rolling Stones. He has mostly written columns regarding environmentalism and his books are of the same nature.
‘The Water Will Come’ is his most recent (2017) and most recognized book, winning one of the top books of 2017 by The New York Times. He also got the same recognition from The Washington Post.
Jumping into this book, I was skeptical. “Here’s going to be another boring environmentalist book with a bunch of stats and facts.” I thought. I was wrong. The way Goodell wrote this book is personable, informative, and story oriented. All very hard to accomplish in one book. Reading this book, you know he did his research. He discusses the first signs of sea water levels rising, why we had an ice age, and pretty much everything you need to know about the history of water levels rising.
Goodell also managed to talk to Al Gore (a passionate global warming advocate) and Barack Obama (former President of The United States). He traveled around the nation talking to some of the top experts in the world. He discusses the complexities of using expensive and innovative walls to block water, the almost more suitable cheaper solutions, and some of the creative architecture involved.
What I mostly took away from this book was his extensive research and interest in Miami. It is commonly researched that Miami is thought to be underwater by 2100. That’s in less than 100 years. He observed how Miami doesn’t look at the long term solutions necessary, and he emphasizes the fact that people there simply do not care. For an example, he talked to a wealthy Miami developer about the severity of the city being underwater he simply responded, “I’ll be dead by that time, so why should I care?”
This book was an incredible read, with an incredible story. If you are interested in environmentalism at all, this book is worth the read.