Chapter Eight - The Water Will Rise

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Water Will Rise

CLIMATE CHANGE ISN’T abstract.
It’s not just numbers or graphs or degrees Celsius.

It’s coastlines.
It’s cities.
It’s homes.

It’s land you thought would always be there going under.

The oceans have already risen over 8 inches since 1900.
That might not sound like much.
But tell that to Miami during high tide.
Tell that to Jakarta, where sidewalks are lower than the sea.
Tell that to Bangladesh, where saltwater creeps into farmland.

And we’re just getting started.

If we stay on our current path?
Up to 6 feet by 2100.
And it won’t stop there.

Even if we stopped burning carbon today, the ice is already melting.
The seas are already rising.

This part is baked in.

But let’s make this real.

Here’s who’s in trouble:

Jakarta, Indonesia
Sinking fast.
Literally.
The city is collapsing under its own weight and the government is already building a brand-new capital inland.

New York City
Already spending billions on sea walls.
During Hurricane Sandy, the subways turned into rivers.
The next one could be worse.

Miami, Florida
Flooding during sunny days.
Saltwater pushing up through the drains.
Property values quietly dropping.

Venice, Italy
Flooded 50 times in 2019.
Tourists wading through history.

Bangkok. Alexandria. New Orleans. Lagos. Shanghai.
The list goes on.

Every coastal city is staring down a future of water.

Sea level rise doesn’t just mean floods.
It means saltwater intrusion.

Into wells.
Into rice paddies.
Into drinking water systems.

It poisons crops.
Destroys farmland.
Wipes out entire livelihoods.

People don’t just lose their homes.
They lose their food.

This isn’t just environmental.
It’s social.

As homes vanish and resources collapse, people are forced to move.

We’re not talking about a few thousand.
We’re talking millions.
Just from sea level rise alone.

Where do they go?
Who takes them in?
What happens to border policy, nationalism, and war when millions show up with nowhere else to go?

We’re not ready for the water.
Not physically.
Not politically.
Not emotionally.

So you can debate policy.
You can delay legislation.
You can deny the science.

But the water doesn’t care.
It keeps rising.