Floods · Sea level · Forecasts
The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World by Jeff Goodell — Summary, Key Ideas & Quotes
2017352 pages✦ 3-min Big ideas★ 3.5 (2)
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What is The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World about?
"By century's end, hundreds of millions of people will be retreating from the world's shores. Nuclear reactors will be decommissioned. The greatest cities in human history, abandoned. This is the story of our rising seas. In a shocking cover story for Rolling Stone, Jeff Goodell predicted that within the lifetime of many of the readers of this book, Miami as we know it today will vanish. This is not a reckless hypothesis. From island nations to the world's major metropolises, our coasts will drown in the rising waters, which will soon inundate and transform our landscapes. There is no simple way to protect ourselves from this fate--no barriers to erect, no walls to build--to prevent the iconic cities of our time from becoming modern Atlantises. THE WATER WILL COME is the definitive account of why this will happen, how this will happen, and what it will mean. Grounded in fact, science, and on-the-ground reporting, it will tell the story of the coming great drowning, in the vein of environmental classics in this mode, like The World Without Us."--Publisher's description.
A glimpse inside
Sea Level Rise Is Inevitable—and Already Happening
Goodell makes it clear that sea level rise is not a distant threat but a present reality. Melting ice sheets and thermal expansion are already pushing water higher onto coasts, and even if carbon emissions stopped today, the momentum of warming means seas will continue to rise for centuries. The book dispels the hope that there’s a technological fix or political solution that can fully stop this process. Instead, Goodell frames sea level rise as a slow-moving disaster that will force adaptation on a massive scale.
Cities on the Front Lines
Through vivid reporting from Miami, Lagos, Venice, New York, and beyond, Goodell shows how major cities—often built at or near sea level—are uniquely vulnerable. He details the engineering challenges, political denial, and economic calculations that shape how cities respond. The book highlights how wealthier cities may buy time with expensive infrastructure, while poorer regions face existential threats. The fate of cities becomes a lens for understanding global inequality and the limits of human adaptation.
Ratings at a glance
Open Library
★ 3.5 / 5
2 ratings
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Get smart in 3 min
6 key ideas, distilled
- 1Sea Level Rise Is Inevitable—and Already Happening
- 2Cities on the Front Lines
- 3Political Inertia and Denial
- 4The Human Cost: Displacement and Migration
- 5Nature’s Power and Human Limits
Popular quotes from The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World
“The water will come. The question is not if, but when.”
“We are all living in Atlantis now.”
Frequently asked
"By century's end, hundreds of millions of people will be retreating from the world's shores. Nuclear reactors will be decommissioned. The greatest cities in human history, abandoned. This is the story of our rising seas. In a shocking cover story for Rolling Stone, Jeff Goodell predicted that within the lifetime of many of the readers of this book, Miami as we know it today will vanish. This is n