We know we are changing the climate. We now know more about the human causes of our planet’s warming, and likely future effects including some sea level rise. Scientists have a growing understanding of triggers and feedback loops. But new evidence suggests we have missed the most important tipping point of all.

This urgent book by Dr Stephen Oppenheimer updates his work on the previous three catastrophic rises in world sea level during the past 14,000 years with the latest field research on sub-polar activity. He discovers how on each of the three previous occasions, initial rapid sea level rise proved merely the harbinger of a far more potent positive feedback cycle which led to a 1000-year temperature hike and unrelenting global flood. Dr Oppenheimer argues that we are now facing the fourth flood and that it has effectively started.

This book is a wake-up call. What we do now and how quickly we do it is of paramount importance in mitigating the worst consequences.