The Atlas of Disappearing Places: Our Coasts and Oceans in the Climate Crisis, Hardcover

A beautiful and engaging guide to global warming's impacts around the world

"The direction in which our planet is headed isn't a good one, and most of us don't know how to change it. The bad news is that we will experience great loss. The good news is that we already have what we need to build a better future." --from the introduction

Our planet is in peril. Seas are rising, oceans are acidifying, ice is melting, coasts are flooding, species are dying, and communities are faltering. Despite these dire circumstances, most of us don't have a clear sense of how the interconnected crises in our ocean are affecting the climate system, food webs, coastal cities, and biodiversity, and which solutions can help us co-create a better future.

Through a rich combination of place-based storytelling, clear explanations of climate science and policy, and beautifully rendered maps that use a unique ink-on-dried-seaweed technique, The Atlas of Disappearing Places depicts twenty locations across the globe, from Shanghai and Antarctica to Houston and the Cook Islands. The authors describe four climate change impacts--changing chemistry, warming waters, strengthening storms, and rising seas--using the metaphor of the ocean as a body to draw parallels between natural systems and human systems.

Each chapter paints a portrait of an existential threat in a particular place, detailing what will be lost if we do not take bold action now. Weaving together contemporary stories and speculative "future histories" for each place, this work considers both the serious consequences if we continue to pursue business as usual, and what we can do--from government policies to grassroots activism--to write a different, more hopeful story.

A beautiful work of art and an indispensable resource to learn more about the devastating consequences of the climate crisis--as well as possibilities for individual and collective action--The Atlas of Disappearing Places will engage and inspire readers on the most pressing issue of our time.

Locations include:

Houston, Texas

Shanghai, China

Hamburg, Germany

San Juan, Puerto Rico

New York City, New York

Pisco, Peru

Kisite, Kenya

Kure Atoll, Hawaii

Camden, Maine

The Cook Islands

San Francisco, California

Norfolk, Virginia

Bến Tre, Vietnam

Ise, Japan

Gravesend, United Kingdom

About author(s):Marina Psaros is a sustainability expert and has led climate action programs across public, private, and nonprofit organizations for over a decade. She is one of the creators of The King Tides Project, an international community science and education initiative. An amateur cartographer and ocean advocate, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Christina Conklin is an artist, writer, and researcher whose work investigates the intersection of natural systems and belief systems, often using the ocean as both site and metaphor. Her essays, exhibitions, and installations consider our cultural responses to the intersecting ecological and social crises of our time. She holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and has exhibited internationally. She is currently working with thought leaders and activists around the world to help communities create regenerative cultural systems. She lives with her husband and two children in Half Moon Bay, California.