New Water Worlds

Image of a city with skyscrapers sinking in water
Will we rise to the challenge of a rising sea level?

The seas are rising. It’s no longer a rarity to see kayakers paddling through downtown Miami. By century’s end, the oceans could be anywhere from 2 to 6 feet higher, threatening millions of people and property. But humans once knew how to adapt to rising waters. As high water threatens to drown our cities, can we learn do it again.

Hear stories of threatened land: submerged Florida suburbs, the original sunken city (Venice), and the U.S. East Coast, where anthropologists rush to catalogue thousands of low-lying historical and cultural sites in harm’s way, including Jamestown, Virginia and ancient Native American sites.

But also, stories of ancient adaptability: from the First American tribes of the Colusa in South Florida to the ice age inhabitants of Doggerland. And, modern approaches to staying dry: stilt houses, seawalls, and floating cities.

Segments:
Part 1: Jeff Goodell / Doomed Miami
Part 2: Brian Fagan / Ancestral Adaptation
Part 3: David Anderson / Endangered History
Part 4: Jeff Goodell / Flood Solutions

originally aired August 27, 2018