'Retreat Is Unavoidable': How Climate Change Is Radically Changing America's Coastline

A major climate report issued by the U.S. government warns that climate change could cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars, knocking about 10 percent off the size of the U.S. economy by end of the century.

The report, released Friday, comes just one month after the U.N.'s prediction that, without unprecedented action, the world will face a climate crisis by 2040.

But many Americans are already living with the devastating effects of climate change, according to environmental writer Elizabeth Rush. Rush spent five years exploring America's coastlines, learning about the people, animals and ecosystem whose existence has already been upended by sea level rise.

Elizabeth Rush, environmental writer. Her book is "Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore." She teaches at Brown University and is the 2019 Antarctic Artist and Writer in Residence for the National Science Foundation. She tweets @elizabetharush.