Against the Seas tells how we have coped with rising sea levels since the end of the Ice Age — by moving, building defences, or magic. Flood stories in different cultures show just how traumatic those experiences were. But what happened in the past may help us in the future and gives hope that we will survive.
An incredible read.… While unflinching in her analysis, Soderstrom nevertheless gifts us with a message of hope and resilience. — MAUDE BARLOW, activist and author of Still Hopeful: Lessons from a Lifetime of Activism.

What can we learn about coping with rising sea levels from ancient times?

The scenario we are facing is scary: within a few decades, sea levels around the world may well rise by a metre or more as glaciers and ice caps melt due to climate change. Large parts of our coastal cities will be flooded, the basic outline of our world will be changed, and torrential rains will present their own challenges. But this is not the first time that people have had to cope with threatening waters, because sea levels have been rising for thousands of years, ever since the end of the last Ice Age. Stories told by the Indigenous people in Australia and on the Pacific coast of North America, and those found in the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as Roman and Chinese histories all bear witness to just how traumatic these experiences were. The responses to these challenges varied: people adapted by building dikes, canals, and seawalls; by resorting to prayer or magic; and, very often, by moving out of the way of the rushing waters.

Against the Seas explores these stories as well as the various measures being taken today to combat rising waters, focusing on five regions: Indonesia, Shanghai, the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, the Salish Sea, and the estuary of the St. Lawrence River. What happened in the past and what is being tried today may help us in the future and, if nothing else, give us hope that we will survive.
Contributor Bio(s)

Credit: Mary Soderstrom, photo credit: Anne Richard
Mary Soderstrom writes fiction and non-fiction. Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from Rising Waters is her eighteenth book and is the logical follow-up to her last, Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future. She has travelled widely, but her home base is Montreal.
 
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Author Website
Author Twitter: @MarySoderstrom
Author Instagram: @marymsoderstrom
Book hashtag: #AgainstTheSeas
 
Key Selling Points
Similar to Elizabeth Rush's Rising, explores stories of rising sea levels
Humankind has been coping with rising sea levels since end of the Ice Age, when melting glaciers drastically changed coastlines and landscapes — what can modern humans learn from our distant ancestors?
A hopeful climate change narrative based on research into how regions across the world are coping with rising sea levels and offering a rainbow of hope in how humans coped in ancient times
In particular, discusses challenges and solutions to rising seal levels in the following regions: lower St. Lawrence; Bay of Fundy; Jakarta, Indonesia; Shanghai; the Sundarbans; and the Salish Sea area
Author has written 18 works of both fiction and non-fiction; most recently, Concrete: From Ancient Origins to a Problematic Future (2020)
 
Quotes/Reviews
An incredible read… While unflinching in her analysis, Soderstrom nevertheless gifts us with a message of hope and resilience. -MAUDE BARLOW, activist and author of Still Hopeful: Lesson from a Lifetime of Activism
 
Soderstrom sets out in clear, detailed terms what has been done (not enough) and, more importantly, what can be done (surprisingly, a lot) to slow down the juggernaut of global warming. -WAYNE GRADY, author of The Quiet Limit of the World
 
Against the Seas is a clear-eyed and fascinating look at the central threat our species faces: sea-level rise as a result of climate change. Soderstrom writes with the fluidity of a novelist, weaving history, hydrology, and climate science into compact narratives about the regions most affected and what we can hope to do to mitigate the worst. -T.C. BOYLE, author of World's End