Rising is a sobering and unflinching look at the impact of rising sea levels from the front lines--those coastal communities dealing with hurricanes, flooding and loss of property. What this book does best is bring the theoretical problem of climate change to the here and now. It isn't some potential issue for the future. In fact, many people are already affected by it today. And Rush shows that it's not just people, but also trees and animals and entire ecosystems on the coast that are on the verge of total collapse.
However, this book is also random and boring at times. Rush often treated this as her personal journal, filling it with rambling reflections and philosophical musings, so there are many passages that have nothing to do with climate change. She also takes a long time to come to her points, so that by the time she gets there through many convoluted sentences, I've already forgotten what she was saying at the beginning of her point. She would included details and names of every single plant and tree she comes across. She also skips around in her narration, referring to people and events many chapters later without helpful hints of who and what they were. This all together made it a much harder book to read than it should have been.
Overall, I feel I learned a lot from this book. It's a timely and poignant look at all that we are already losing to climate change, and all that we still have to lose if we don't take action now. But I was hoping more for a book based on science, while this comes across more as a memoir by a climate scientist, with random musings, side stories, and philosophical questions. This wasn't the easiest book to get through, but because of its timeliness and relevance, I'm glad I did.
Readaroo Rating: 3 stars
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