South Florida Underwater - An Inevitability - Aquarius Papers

by Robert Wilkinson

It's no longer a speculation, but a forecast. A study by FAU indicates that 6 million South Florida residents are in danger of losing their homes, fresh water, and sewage treatment within a relatively few years.

In a story by Fred Grimm, courtesy of the Miami Herald and McClatchy News, we read that "The rising sea will wash across great swaths of South Florida. Salt water will contaminate the well fields. Roads and farmland and low-lying neighborhoods will be inundated. The soil will no longer absorb the kind of heavy rainfalls that drenched South Florida last weekend. Septic tanks will fail. Drainage canals won’t drain. Sewers will back up. Intense storms will pummel the beachfront. Mighty rainfalls, in between droughts, will bring more floods." It is speculated that economic losses will be in the "hundreds of millions" for Pompano Beach water and sewage systems.

From the story:

The study from FAU’s Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions, adding to an overwhelming scientific consensus about the disastrous effects of global warming, and along with growing hard evidence that temperature changes are already altering the environment, ought to have sent tremors through the halls of government.
Except it didn't. Perhaps the most peculiar phenomenon associated with global warming has been a burgeoning disdain for climate science even as scientific consensus grows more urgent.....

This peculiarly American phenomenon comes despite a decade of record high temperatures. And despite findings of a sustained global temperature increase from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Hadley Centre in England, and, just last week, the University of California’s Berkeley Earth project, which compiled more than a billion temperature records dating back to the 1800s from 15 sources around the world.

If a billion temperature readings and a record-breaking drought this summer in Texas and Oklahoma weren’t convincing enough, global warming should be as plain as the Google Earth satellite photos of polar icecaps.

“It is really quite an unbelievable time,” said Harold Wanless, chairman of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Miami. Wanless, who contributed to the FAU study, described the “dramatically accelerating melt from the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.” He said, “We have forced the greenhouse gasses to levels that have not been reached since sea level was about 100 feet higher than present....”

Barry N. Heimlich, lead researcher on the FAU study, suggested Friday that the media has contributed to the gulf between science and the public. “By giving equal credence to positions that are not well supported by science, the media presents a confusing and distorted picture to the public,” he said. “I believe that the media has a responsibility to present all sides of a story, but it also has an obligation to emphasize the truth and provide people with the proper balance of information so they can make intelligent, informed choices based on information that is reliable, supported by facts and not manipulated by special interests....”

Stephen Leatherman, co-director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research, who contributed to the study, insisted the science here was settled. He said via e-mail, “My work on sea level rise is straightforward — global warming causes sea level to rise, and rising sea level results in land loss, especially beach erosion…. There are no scientists that disagree with this statement, albeit the public may still be confused or not willing to accept this situation,” he said. “Especially if they own beachfront property.”

By all means, check out the original story at McClatchy, since there's a lot in there that I didn't quote here. This will be one of the most urgent environmental issues of our lifetimes, as well as the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren.

It may be useful to remember that the highest point in Florida is 325 feet (in North Florida) and most of the state below Orlando is near or at sea level. I suppose the only ones who will benefit are those who have businesses that elevate beachfront houses on stilts, those who get paid to solve water and wastewater issues for municipalities, and those who have houses at least 50 feet higher than the current edge of where land meets water (over 100 feet if the Greenland ice sheets all melt!)

Remember, this will affect ALL houses on any and all waterfronts, since as the old saying goes, "water seeks its own level." Surf's up (and up, and up, and up!)

Comments

Hi Robert, to bad that this report is only the beginning of the story. the Pyton population has explosed in the ever glades, there are bearded dragon, and other dangerous reptiles with exploding populations. I lived in coastal central florida on a lake, I was concerned with alligators a native animal. What Isaw swimmimg across the late one day was 3ft. lizard who then decided to come up on my neighbors grass and sun himself!! BIG problem with native spieces disappearing, as they are the food for these reptiles. I can't remember the magazine, but there was an arial shot of a pyton that burst open with a tail of an alligator hanging out of it's mouth. the alligator was a reported 15 feet.the game commission is overwhelmed and underfunded. there is a law for open season on pythons. Not interested in hearing about flood waters creating more passage ways for these animals, but we will. IT'S a mess, I won't ever go into the loss of our bees. when I moved there I had european honey bees all around my flower gardens, before I left I was spraying to death africanize bees. so sad, but it all got me out.JUST A SHAME.

Posted by: cathy | November 03, 2011 at 06:24 AM

checked my memory allegator was 6ft. python was 13ft. national G. mag.

Posted by: cathy | November 03, 2011 at 11:18 AM

Hi cathy - I spent many years as a kid in central FL, and yes, the pythons and non-native plants have been wiping out many square miles of native creatures. I read recently of a very long python that when killed had a whole deer inside of it. I'm sure they're cute when they're a foot long, but they are a real menace to living things once they get too big to handle and are released by someone into "the wilds." Of course, once their habitat is mostly below water they'll migrate somewhere else like the swamps of Georgia and Alabama.

Posted by: Robert | November 03, 2011 at 11:34 AM