Once the financial capital of the world,  New  York  began  in  the  early  twenty-first  century  to  attempt  to  defend  its  elaborate and expensive infrastructure against the sea. But that infrastructure had been designed and built with an expectation of constant seas and was not easily adapted to continuous, rapid rise. Like the Netherlands, New York City gradually lost its struggle. Ultimately, it proved less expensive to retreat to higher ground, abandoning centuries’ worth of capital investments.

—Erik M. Conway and Naomi Oreskes: The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future (2014)

Image: Heidi Cullen: Weather of the Future (2011)