Freethinkers Book Club: The Water Will Come by Jeff Goodell

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

Hosted by: Karen C.

The Water Will Come is an easy read and engaging account of rising sea level – why and how this will reshape our world in fundamental ways. Jeff Goodell, a long-time editor of Rolling Stone and a superb storyteller, uses facts, science, and on-the-ground journalism to describe how our planet is already becoming a water world, what this means, and what we can do about it. Published in 2017, this book remains relevant for understanding and addressing the scale and complexity of this crisis.

1. The author, Jeff Goodell, provides examples and information related to rising seas due to climate change. Was there a specific account in the book that made a particularly strong impression upon you?

2. Climate change and rising sea levels are complex and a result of many variables. Were there any that were mentioned in the book that were surprising?

3. Why do you think community leaders, officials, and the public have been slow to respond to climate change?

4. We are witnessing American cities struggling to provide safe drinking water and maintain existing infrastructure. Do you think it is realistic for cities that are threatened directly by rising sea levels to build their way out of the dilemma?

5. As sea levels rise in the U.S., what do you think will be the reaction of non-coastal cities/people?

6. Thinking globally, what about cities with less resources and in developing countries? The U.S. rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement in February 2021. In 2009, the Green Climate Fund was created to help mobilize private and public financing for developing countries. From 2015 – 2021, $37.1 billion of projects were in the portfolio that encompassed 127 developing countries. The goal was to raise $100 billion by 2021. Do you think this initiative is matched to the challenge? What is the role of wealthier countries in relation to poorer nations in dealing with rising sea levels and climate change?

7. On its website, the IPCC concludes it will be impossible to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees C without immediate and deep emission reductions. The difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees C could mean substantially more sea level rise, more poverty, extreme heat and drought, and habitat loss. The good news is while we cannot stop global warming, we can slow the rate, and some scientists project we have less than 8 years to accomplish this. Do you think this is a challenge that can be met? Why or why not?

8. Has reading this book changed your perception or enhanced your understanding of climate change? Would you recommend this book to others?

Additional resources:

2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report: Updated projections available through 2150 for all U.S. coastal waters.

Paris Climate Agreement – Everything you need to know

Green Climate Fund Annual Result Report

NOAA News – Assessing the Global Climate in 2021 with links to full report:
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/global-climate-202112 https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/202113

IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change

Provisional State of the Global Climate 2022

We hope you will join this inaugural event. Many of us like to read, but it is sometimes difficult to find someone to discuss the book we’re reading. We intend that the Freethinkers' Book Club meet monthly to discuss books which interest our group. Our range of topics is broad, including history, current events, philosophy, science, and sometimes just a good novel that we can appreciate on many levels.

Each month the group will select a new book for the next discussion. PFC encourages participants to recommend titles and build a reading list. Some titles may include:

• Global Discontents – Conversations on the Rising Threat to Democracy by Noam Chomsky

• Animal Vegetable Criminal by Mary Roach

• No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes by Anand Gopal

• Indigenous Continent: Epic Contest for North America by Pekka Hamalaihen

• Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, and Why It Matters by Steven Pinker

• The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience by Lee McIntyre (who spoke to PFC in 2019)

• The Woman That Never Evolved by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

• Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West

• The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt (the latter won the 2020 Sagan Award from CMU)

• The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K LeGuin

• Contact by Carl Sagan

Please join us!

Participants are encouraged to join PFC if not already a member.
https://pghfreethought.org/Become-a-member