Jeff Goodell: The Water Will Come

Heavy rainfall lead to flooding in farms in western Minnesota.
Rainfall caused corn and beet fields to flood with about six inches of water on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017 near Hector, Minn. Tractors can't access fields when they're flooded, leading to delayed harvests for farms.
Ellen Schmidt | MPR News

This is Water Month on Minnesota Public Radio. Water is the most visible and tangible impact of climate disruption: drought, downpours, floods and rising sea levels.

That was the topic of discussion on a recent episode of the Commononwealth Club of California's "Climate One" series.

Jeff Goodell says "the future's going to require adaptable living," and it's important to make the climate change water risks transparent.

Goodell is the author of "The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World."

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

Katharine Mach is senior research scientist at Stanford, and former co-director for science at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IGPCC).

Marco Krapels is a former vice president at Tesla, co-founder of The Solutions Project, and another group called Empowered By Light.

They conclude that there are winners and losers in climate change, but there is not enough forward-looking thinking. Even the flood zone maps are already out of date.

The moderator of the Climate One series is Greg Dalton.

To listen to the program, click the audio player above.