Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone contributing editor and acclaimed author of the Water Will Come, Cool the Planet, and Big Coal is the Aresty Speaker at the 3rd Annual iCAR Conference. ICAR – Initiative on Coastal Adaptation and Resilience – takes focus this year on the social impact of rising seas.

Through his extensive global investigation and compelling writing, author and investigative journalist  Jeff Goodell explores the impact of inevitable rising sea level – what this means for human society in the coming decades and how risks can be mitigated with solutions available today.

Jeff Goodell has established himself as an expert on the coal industry, geoengineering, and climate change. He examines the combined impacts of soaring oil prices, rising seas, and global warming – and the increasing urgency to find energy independence.  Mr. Goodell offers a vital perspective on what is at stake – and how to stem the tide of environmental disaster.

Mr. Goodell is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine and Yale University’s Environment 360. He covers environmental issues including the Gulf Oil Spill and is the author of the New York Times bestseller Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith, based on the terrifying hours nine Quecreek miners spent trapped underground.

In his highly regarded book Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future, Goodell takes a frank look at coal, which has been hailed as the cheap energy solution of the future. Building on exhaustive research on the history of the U.S. energy industry and the environmental, political, and economic issues underlying coal, Goodell exposes its many hidden costs—greenhouse emissions, pollution, the environmental toll, miners and mining communities, industry collusion that stifles innovation.  His works discuss how we, as well as nations like India and China, will have to confront these pressing problems as global energy demand surges. Big Coal is also the subject of a feature documentary called Dirty Business.

His latest book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Reshaping of the Civilized World, takes an immersive look at the global crisis of rising oceans. Steeped in scientific research and on-the-ground reporting, especially in South Florida, The Water Will Come is written in the tradition of environmental classics like The World Without Us.

About the iCAR Conference

Mr. Goodell is the Distinguished Aresty Speaker co-presented by the Open Partnership Education Network (OPEN), the Initiative on Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (iCAR), USF St. Petersburg, and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council ONE BAY Resilient Communities Working Group. The OPEN Partnership Education Network is sponsored by the Aresty Family Foundation.

This two-day workshop, hosted by the Initiative on Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (iCAR), USF St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council ONE BAY Resilient Communities Working Group, engages participants in discussion about social and physical vulnerabilities to coastal hazards and current efforts to build regional resiliency.

Mr. Goodell’s keynote is followed by presentations and facilitated discussions between experts from the national level, South Florida, and Tampa Bay regions.  Participants learn of and explore potential regional solutions and approaches for addressing the resilience and adaptations of coastal cities to climate change.