Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush.

Fascinating discussion of the perilous flooding threatening coastal communities. "...conserving the stage" means taking into account and working on behalf of the physical factors that foster biodiversity in the first place: soil types, hydrology, landform variation, and above all else, topography." Can we push a reset button and restore precious habitat ruined by human activity?

Another review based on my re-read.


This is an incredible book, lyrical at the same time as being informative about a serious, extremely worrisome, more accurately scary future facing our World. Human habitation is destroying our Natural World, raising the specter of extinction beyond just animal species finally to our own. There is no Planet B. The author, through extensive research, visits to imminently threatened locations, and interviews with impacted residents, researchers, and activists, lays out the reality of Climate Change and the sea level rise it is bringing at an ever accelerating rate. She documents the dire situation Native Americans on an Island off Florida face where relocation becomes the only future and a different situation in the California Bay Area where a re-establishment of wetlands is being funded and attempted, although she makes it clear that a whole new approach of massive relocation of human activity will likely be eventually necessary to deal with the massive consequences of sea level rise. This is an important book to read, digest, and talk about.