Subtitled “Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Costal Cities”, The Ravaging Tide is a book about global warming by Mike Tidwell, author of Bayou Farewell. At first, it seems as though Tidwell is trying to cash in on the spate of Katrina books. The cover blurb sensationally, if not inaccurately, credits the author with predicting the calamity wreaked by hurricane Katrina in his earlier book and he begins this book by discussing the phenomenon of subsidence, familiar to most New Orleanians, by which silty, alluvial soil over time compacts and sinks lower. South Louisiana, Tidwell reports, has sunk about two feet over the past hundred years or so. Meanwhile, warmer ocean temperatures have already caused the sea level to rise by about one foot resulting in the case of Louisiana in a net three foot increase in the level of the Gulf of Mexico.
Tidwell cites a number of scientists and presents a consensus best estimate that over the next 50–100 years sea levels will rise up to three feet due to global warming. He also cites evidence that warmer ocean temperatures are responsible for the more frequent and more ferocious storms we have seen in recent years and states that the devastation seen in New Orleans is merely a preview of what will happen everywhere as rising sea levels turn barrier islands and wetlands into open water, providing a clear path for the more frequent and ferocious storms to hit major cities. New York City is way overdue for its own “big one”, he says.
Tidwell next talks about Alaska and reports how huge glaciers and ice shelves have begun to melt and tells of polar bears stranded and drowning as ice floes which had been near land are now over a hundred miles out to sea and how the native Inuits have begun to see species of plant and animal life for which they have no words in their language. Warmer temperatures have drawn species never seen before which can not live in the colder climates previously prevailing and relates his own growing realization of how serious the climate crisis is.
There is a window of opportunity, Tidwell argues, in which we can if we act now reverse global warming and prevent the coming ecological catastrophe. Further, he argues, we can do so with technology that is available now and in such a way that will boost our economy and allow us to maintain and improve our standards of living. He relates in some detail his own efforts to reduce his carbon footprint by fully 90%. Some of the changes he made were quite simple and inexpensive– plugging Everything into power strips and then turning off the strips when not in use to save the power many devices draw even when turned off, replacing all light bulbs with compact fluorescents and becoming vigilant in turning off lights in empty rooms. Other changes are more costly and difficult– trading the gas guzzler for a Prius, buying an Energy Star refrigerator that uses 90% less power than the old one, heating his home with a stove that burns organic corn in place of a natural gas furnace and installing solar panels on his roof.
Tidwell argues that we can and must do all of these things immediately to stave off focawki* and over the course of the book becomes increasingly strident in this prescription. And therein lies the real flaw with this book. Tidwell has veered from reporting to advocacy and is less effective for it. While I found the science and evidence cited convincing, the alarmist and prescriptive tone gives Ravaging Tide the feel of a political manifesto rather than an objective report. Which is unfortunate, given the importance of this issue and the high quality of the evidence cited.
*Fall of Civilization As We Know It. focawki was a frequently used acronym (in a distinctly different context) years ago on Compu$erve
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