Jeff Goodell: The Heat Will Kill You First

Thursday, January 25th | 5:15-6:30pm, with optional tours at 4:15pm of the Ryan Resilience Lab

Complimentary admission for ERP members

All are welcome – Suggested minimum donation $10 per attendee to support a healthy Elizabeth River though not required in our commitment to providing equitable access to our river-related programming

Debuting Resilient Reeds, a spotlight series featuring the latest environmental writers

Join us for a fresh and vital perspective on the most pressing issue of our time, followed by a Q&A and book signing with award-winning climate journalist Jeff Goodell, a contributing editor of Rolling Stone. In Norfolk, home of the highest rate of sea level rise on the east coast, we talk often of the rising tide and what to do about it. But sea level rise is just the secondary effect. What is the primary cause? Warming temperatures worldwide, which will affect all of us sooner than we think. 

In his latest book, The Heat Will Kill You First, Goodell makes vivid and urgent the problem of heat. As energy independence, extreme heat, and climate change become increasingly urgent priorities, Goodell offers a vital perspective on how to stem the tide of environmental disaster—and what’s at stake if we fail to act. 

“Heat is the primary driver for this climate transformation we’re undergoing right now,” Goodell said in a recent interview. “It is the invisible force that is changing our world.”

Goodell’s lecture will be the debut of our unusual book series, Resilient Reeds, featuring in-person engagement with the authors of the latest in climate and environmental literature, with a focus on finding hope and reclaiming a diverse history for our home river.

Goodell’s previous seminal books on climate include The Water Will Rise.

Part of The Ryan Resilience Series
Made Possible by Virginia Natural Gas

THE MISSION of the non-profit Elizabeth River Project seemed almost impossible when we started 30 years ago: To turn around the health of an urban river at the time presumed dead, with high rates of cancer in fish. These decades later, fishermen flock to the Elizabeth River, also known as the military and commercial harbor of Norfolk, VA, for some of the best fishing in the region. Otters and dolphin are back. The 2023 scorecard by area scientists for the first time gives the river several grades of “A” for overall water quality. More than 6,500 residents, 56 schools and 148 businesses participate with us as “River Stars,” voluntarily doing their part to reduce pollution and restore wildlife habitat.

However, an existential threat looms over the health of this ecosystem and its communities. Norfolk is experiencing the highest rate of relative sea level rise on the East Coast. As the river overflows normal bounds, reaching far into city blocks and then receding, it loads the Elizabeth with a toxic soup. Also unraveling the Elizabeth River Project’s pioneer progress with restoring wetlands, the rising seas are predicted to drown as much as 80 percent of this river’s marshes over the next 50 to 70 years.

Virginia Natural Gas with its signature gift for 2023 will make possible the first programming for our nationally important answer, the Ryan Resilience Lab, 4610 Colley Avenue, Norfolk, VA. Many coastal communities experience our challenges. The Ryan Lab will present a global model for how to live, work and play in the urban flood plain as sea levels rise. While final construction is still underway for the grounds and some of the green systems, we can’t wait to start programs. With special thanks to Virginia Natural Gas, we’re launching the Ryan Resilience Series in November 2023 with some of the freshest programming on sea level resilience anywhere.

You’re invited! Presenting present and future challenges and solutions for humans and the ecosystem as sea levels rise. Fresh, inspiring, thought-provoking programs in art, history and science, with a priority for engaging marginalized communities. All programs include optional, provocative tours of the Ryan Lab, designed with resilient technologies replicable to the public.

For more information on this Ryan Resilience Series event, please contact Victoria Dunch, vdunch@elizabethriver.org, 757-399-7487.