Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-301).

Harvey. Maria. Irma. Sandy. Katrina. The early twenty-first century can be described as a time of unprecedented and catastrophic weather events, a time when it is increasingly clear that climate change is neither imagined nor distant - and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. The author explores some of the places where this change has been most dramatic, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish in place. Weaving firsthand accounts from those facing this choice - a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago - with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of the communities both at risk and already displaced, this book spotlights the voices of those usually kept at the margins.--adapted from dust jacket.