ornitz consults past climate archives to help better anticipate future developments and prepare for them more effectively. She focuses on several understudied historical events, including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Anomaly, the Messinian salinity crisis, the rapid filling of the Black Sea (which may have inspired the story of Noah's flood), and the Storrega submarine slide, an incident possibly connected to a sea level occurrence roughly 8,000 years old. By examining dramatic variations in past sea level and climate, Gornitz concretizes the potential consequences of rapid, human-induced warming. She builds historical precedent for coastal hazards associated with a higher ocean level, such as increased damage from storm surge flooding, even if storm characteristics remain unchanged. Citing the examples of Rotterdam, London, New York City, and other forward-looking urban centers that are effectively preparing for higher sea level, Gornitz also delineates the difficult economic and political choices of curbing carbon emissions while underscoring, through past geological analysis, the urgent need to do so.

Acknowledgments

1. The Ever-Changing Ocean

2. The Causes and Detection of Sea Level Change

3. Piercing the Veil of Time: Sea Levels After the Dinosaurs

4. When the Mammoths Roamed: Sea Level During the Ice Ages

5. The Great Ice Meltdown and Rising Seas

6. The Modern Speedup of Sea Level Rise

7. Sea Level Rise on a Warming Planet

8. Shorelines at Risk

9. Coping with the Rising Waters

10. Charting a Future Course

Appendix

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Credits

Index