Retreat from a rising sea: hard choices in an age of climate change

With its 28-foot storm surge and 174 mph winds, 2005's Hurricane Katrina was responsible for nearly 2,000 deaths and more than $100 billion in damage.

The event was only a preview of what will soon hit coastal communities as climate change increases the power of storms that can lay waste to critical infrastructure, such as water-treatment and energy facilities, and create vast, irreversible pollution by decimating landfills and toxic-waste sites.

This big-picture, policy-oriented book explains in gripping terms what rising oceans will do to coastal cities and the drastic actions we need to take now to remove vulnerable populations.