Rising seas: 'Florida is about to be wiped off the map'

[malaise]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/26/rising-seas-florida-climate-change-elizabeth-rush
<snip>
Sea level rises are not some distant threat; for many Americans they are very real. In an extract from her chilling new book, Rising, Elizabeth Rush details how the US coastline will be radically transformed in the coming years

[Elwood P Dowd]

1. Little Marco says nothing to worry about.

<snip>

According to Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida, rising sea levels are uncertain, their connection to human activity tenuous. And yet the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expects roughly two feet of rise by century’s end. The United Nations predicts three feet. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates an upper limit of six and a half feet.

But Hal says it doesn’t matter whether you live six feet above sea level or sixty-five, because he, like James Hansen, believes that all of these predictions are, to put it mildly, very, very low. “The rate of sea level rise is currently doubling every seven years, and if it were to continue in this manner, Ponzi scheme style, we would have 205 feet of sea level rise by 2095,” he says. “And while I don’t think we are going to get that much water by the end of the century, I do think we have to take seriously the possibility that we could have something like 15 feet by then.”

[malaise]

3. He's a proven idiot

Tell him to go grab a water bottle and STFU

[redstateblues]

2. It is definitely headed that way but this headline makes it sound like

it could happen at any moment. The reality is that only wealthy people will be able to live there. Insurance will be out of reach for most. The unavailability of fresh water will be a huge issue before the coastline is transformed. It is coming.

[malaise]

4. Think about it this way

those of us in our 60s and 70s can't believe how quickly we got here.

[pbmus]

9. LOL...

[Baclava]

5. Wiped off the map? Puh-leze, doomsday predictions like this does no one any good, what next, aliens?

Anybody can write a doomsday book, none of them ever happen.

Call Nostradamus...

[BannonsLiver]

11. And hot takes devoid of facts are a benefit?

[Baclava]

13. U be laughed off the docks anywhere in FL with that kinda talk, its stupid. "FL wiped off the map"

My garage floor survey marker is 52 ft above sea level and im only a couple of miles from water.

Sea level isn't rising 50 ft in 10 years, just stop it.

[onenote]

6. While I agree that the rising sea level poses an existential threat to the southern part of Florida

I think the claim that "Florida is about to be wiped off the map" is a bit hyperbolic and I don't think hyperbole helps. The projections are for what could happen, if rising sea levels are not addressed, by the end of the century, which isn't really "about". And while a significant portion of the southern end of the state would be under water, no one claims the entire state will be under water, so saying the state will be "wiped off the map" is a bit overwrought.

I understand that in some instances, being alarmist is necessary to get people's attention. But its a dangerous tactic because it also allows the deniers and skeptic an opening to argue that we're crying wolf.

[dameatball]

7. I grew up in Florida from the 50's to the 90's.

My dad, who sold antiques and was NOT a scientist always told us that all those housing developments created artificially by dredging would one day be reclaimed by the sea. We used to go crabbing ( 9-10 years old) with nets and flashlights at night in areas that we would be arrested for trespassing on now. I always believed that , so I never bought property there. We used to live about 20 miles inland and most of the county built sidewalks were built on a dredge base. We would go and hunt sharks teeth before they paved it over. I had a pretty good collection at one time.
Do not think for one minute that money laundering was not occurring even back in those days, although perhaps a different cast of characters. In my area Mafia was strong back then. Damn good Cuban sandwiches and deviled crabs almost made up for it.
After Hurricane Andrew, the citizens of Florida were soaked with a massive increase in insurance premiums, or else the companies would have pulled out of the state. Once again, the average citizen was subsidizing the wealthy that could afford beachfront homes. That still exists.
I assume the same thing has happened in New Orleans, New Jersey and Houston.

The funny (odd funny, not haha funny) thing is that Florida since the 50's-60's has been a state largely RE-populated by people who moved here from elsewhere. They paid taxes in Ohio, or wherever, to support their kids schools, roads, etc....but feel no real obligation to do so in Florida. This has driven Floridas politics for decades. "I got mine, so screw you." The days of Leroy Collins, Reubin Askew and Bob Graham are over. We ended up with a Bush Carpetbagger from Texas and a Rick Scott Medicaid defrauder....who is now running for Senate.

Sorry for the rant. But the point is.....all these huge real estate developemnts , many of which were passed with greased palms and tax advantages, will end up costing the American people billions of dollars. Mother nature does not
give a shit. Her word is law. Everyone who has an insurance policy with any major company in Florida will help pay for this. Doesn't matter where you live.

[malaise]

10. There are some folks who know the

terrain and can't be fooled - wise dad and a great rant.

[FakeNoose]

12. You're right about the retired folks - they don't want to pay taxes

But it's just as true in Pennsylvania as it is in Florida.

I've never lived in Florida but I remember coming to visit back in the 50's and early 60's before the huge wave of development. (My grandparents retired and moved to Clearwater in the 1950's.) I remember flying into the Tampa/St. Pete airport when it was still a quonset hut, they hadn't built the terminal yet.

Florida's big problem is the way they have pumped out the groundwater (for wells and such) and it has created the suddenly collapsing sinkholes in strange places. The damage can't be undone and the incoming groundwater has never replaced what's been taken out. Things are going to get worse, and insurance won't be able to cover it.

Best of luck to you!

[FM123]

8. As a Floridian, these rising sea levels really do concern us.

(By us, I mean regular folk - not idiots like Rubio!)

[ornotna]

14. I'm not so sure about "wiped off the map"

Many will lose their homes for sure.



https://ucsusa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=cf07ebe0a4c9439ab2e7e346656cb239

[raven mad]

15. As my birth state slowly sinks -

I can't think of a much better place for it.

[roamer65]

16. Just keep pumping CO2 climate change deniers.

We are going to force you to stay in the areas shown in this video. Hope you can tread water for a long, long time.

https://m.