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Title: The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities
ISBN: 0743294718
Author:
Mike Tidwell
Publicate Date: 2007-06-05
Publish: 2007-06-05
List Price: $14.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.88
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $1.40
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.20
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Important Book
This book has helped me realize the connections between respect for our planet, personal responsibility, peace, and human dignity. All of them are intertwined, and Tidwell clearly shows their relationships in examining the effects of the Katrina hurricane on New Orleans and then connecting the magnitude of the detestation to human actions. If Tidwell was not such an inspiring, and hopeful person/writer I would be quite freightened by all of the new knoweldge I have gained. BUT, he puts it all into perspective and ultimately the world can be OK if we all take personal responsibility and as a planet reduce the C02 in our atmosphere.
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2: Insightful
Mike Tidwell predicted that a Katrina-like storm would destroy New Orleans in his 2003 book "Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast." He said in truth he knew the disaster was coming when he saw how much land had vanished while doing a story on Louisiana's coastal region for the Washington Post in the late 90s.
There were also thousands of reports about the need for better levees and the restoration of the barrier islands. He said there was nothing "natural" about this disaster.
Tidwell's 2006 book "The Ravaging Tide" explains why Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, shows how similar calamities will become more frequent and how we can prevent them.
Using the research of Jared Diamond and Conrad Totman, Tidwell illustrates how history is repeating itself. Thankfully history also shows there are viable ways to prevent future disasters.
Jared Diamond in his book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" shows how history is littered with people who allowed their society to participate in a form of group suicide. Sifting through the challenges and the reactions of the ancient Mayans of Central America, Greenland's Vikings and the Polynesian society of Easter Island Diamond found common "interacting" factors that brought them down. These included hostile enemies, climate change, self inflicted environment degradation and adverse changes in trading partners.
For example the Easter Islanders cut down their giant palm trees although the fruit provided food and the trunks supplied wood for the canoes needed to harpoon fish. The catastrophic soil erosion that resulted from the deforestation made agriculture impossible. By 1722 the island was a lunar landscape.
Diamond says the Easter Islanders decision to pursue short-term gains at the expense of long-term survival led to their downfall. The leaders had wrapped themselves in the illusion of permanent prosperity.
Conrad Totman in his book "The Green Archipelago: Forestry in Prehistoric Japan" says that Japan teetered on the brink of ruin in the 1600s when soil erosion, floods, mudslides and barren farmland resulted after logging most of their old growth forests. But Japan's collapse did not happen. They launched one of the most successful reforestation program in the world's history. Today an astounding 70 percent of Japan is under forest coverū the most of any industrialized country in spite of having the highest population density in the developed world.
Tidwell shows how the Katrina catastrophe could have been prevented. In the early 90s the Army Corps built modest dam-like structures in the Mississippi's flood levees to control water flow through a series of pipes and canals. Satellite photos later showed that the "diversion" project south of New Orleans created hundreds of acres of new marshland.
With rising public and scientific support a coalition of south Louisiana leaders pulled together a master plan called "Coast 2050: Toward a sustainable Coastal Louisiana" to enlarge the project. Federal officials under both Presidents Clinton and Bush denied the project due to its $14 billion price tag.
Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), made up of thousands of climate scientists and scholars, said that one of the biggest global warming issues will be coastal flooding the 2005 post-Katrina emergency money was a dismal $250 million to fix broken levees, collapsed bridges and flawed evacuation plans.
Tidwell says sea levels are expected to rise three feet within the coming decades. Even the Bush administration, the biggest supporter of the oil and coal industry, admits that global warming is real and is driven by our use of fossil fuelsū oil, coal and natural gas.
To prove that it's possible to repair and protect our life-giving climate Tidwell and his family switched to energy sources that don't generate carbon dioxide. He bought a Toyota Prius gas-electric car and cut his home's carbon emissions by 90% in six months by using a combination of compact fluorescent light bulbs, greater appliance efficiency, a corn-burning stove for heating, a solar hot water system and rooftop solar panels for electricity. Without sacrificing comfort or convenience he now saves around a $1,000 per year. The changes only cost him around $7,500 thanks to state and federal grants and tax credits (learn more at www.dsireusa.org). Tidwell says that over 100,000 American homeowners enjoy the cost effective rooftop photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and hot water systems. Also a million village homes in the developing world enjoy modest electrical power from small solar panels.
Tidwell believes America can cut its consumption of oil, coal and natural gas in a matter of months without sacrificing an ounce of comfort.
Because of conservation, hybrid engines, commercial wind farms, biofuels, and lighter vehicle frames Europe is twice as efficient and clean. Although they use half the energy per capita as the United States they are pushing for more cuts while continuing to grow Europe's biggest national economy.
Tidwell says most of our nations problemsū health, national security, the economy and the environment flow from our national energy choices. Are we in America going to stubbornly stick to the use of fossil fuels even if it kills us?
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3: ripping good read
Tidwell's argument is simple: we created the damage Katrina caused, and we are going to create more destruction to coastal cities, by bulldozing, filling, removing the natural protections against storm surges. The book rips right along in making this argument--I would call it an "enjoyable" read except that he is so dead serious about the issue. As a part-time resident of Long Island, I have to hope he is wrong, and he certainly presents no counter-evidence (this is NOT a scientific book), but I fear he probably is right. The high tides out where I live have risen a good foot in the past forty years...
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4: Climate Change is Real
The flooding of New Orleans resulted from a combination of effects: subsiding land, sea level increase, destruction of protecting wetlands, and of course a violent storm. Tidwell's thesis is that sea level will continue to rise and tropical storms and hurricanes will increase in intensity, all as a result of climate change. The entire East Coast of the United States will be as vulnerable as was New Orleans. Most of Miami and the rest of Florida average just a few feet above sea level. While New York City is mostly on higher ground, the author observes that the infrastructure, the subways system for example, is well below ground.
As world temperatures rise, melting or collapsing glaciers will add water to the ocean. Higher world temperatures will also mean that the water already in the ocean will expand and cause an additional rise in the sea level. Thus, land that is today at or slightly above sea level will become land that is below sea level. Certainly, whether or not storms grow more intense (this is still being debated in the scientific community), global warming will increase the level of the ocean. All of our coastal cities may go the way of New Orleans.
Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report in which it stated that the Earth is warming and that most of the warming is a result of human activity. This is also the overwhelming view of the scientific community. My first encounter with the effects of global warming was a hike in the 1980s to the foot of the Paradise Glacier on Mt. Ranier to visit the ice caves. I was disappointed to find that the famous caves were mostly gone. The caves had disappeared because the glacier itself was retreating. We now know that glaciers all over the world are melting. A recent headline caught my eye; "Iceberg off New Zealand becomes tourist mecca," AP, November 21, 2006. The residents of New Zealand could look out their windows to see pieces of Antarctica floating by.
It is not clear what it will take to get our US government to take steps to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. We have already lost one major city. Will we have to see a few more go before we take action? Tidwell does a good job of presenting the need for individual and governmental action.
I also recommend "With Speed and Violence" by Fred Pearce. a book about recent scientific investigations and their implications for global warming.
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5: A Great, must-read book
I loved this book so much that I've read the first chapter aloud to three appreciative people on the phone, and I'm also planning to buy a copy for every Maryland state legislator. (Let me know if you do the same in your state.)
Mike Tidwell writes beautifully. Even though I've seen An Inconvenient Truth, and heard Bill McKibbon speak, I learned plenty from The Ravaging Tide that I hadn't already heard before. Tidwell shares history, science, policy, despair (when we don't act on clean energy policy), and promise (when we do).
Yes, it may be odd, but I was walking (not driving!) down sidewalks while reading this book. I couldn't put it down, until the very last page.
Mike Tidwell is a former journalist and travel writer for the Washington Post and the National Geographic Traveler.
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