Alarming Climate Change Effects on FL
(Posted Nov 21, 2011 08:09 am)
MIAMI, FL - Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation is out, and none too soon: 2011 has been one of the most costly years on record for extreme weather events worldwide, and the U.S. has had more "billion dollar events" than ever before. Released by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the new report reveals that changes in weather patterns and resulting ocean warming will have a direct effect on Florida.
Dr. Harold Wanless, professor and chair of the Dept.
of Geological Sciences, University of Miami, co-authored
the report. He warns that by the end of this century,
regions of South Florida will be uninhabitable.
"There is consensus that Miami-Dade County will be
abandoned, basically, by the end of the century. Mumbai
will be abandoned - 15 million people, Atlantic City -
you name it. With a four- or five-foot rise in sea
level, most of the deltas of the world will be
abandoned."
The rise in sea level is a result of warming due to
carbon dioxide gas released into the atmosphere from
burning fossil fuels, Wanless explains. As sea water
warms, polar ice melts.
The report reflects the recognition that the changing
planetary climate is increasing living creatures'
exposure to extreme weather events. By managing risk and
boosting preparedness, the report suggests, humans can
increase their resiliency to potentially devastating
events.
The Obama Administration is working to increase climate
resiliency throughout the U.S. However, for South
Florida, Wanless says it may be too little, too late.
"South Florida has seen about a 10-inch rise in sea
level since 1930. That's about eight times the rate over
the several thousand years before that."
Florida Gov. Rick Scott told reporters last year that
global warming and climate change are unproven. Scott's
office did not respond to a request for comments on the
report.
Wanless says the water is lapping at Floridians' feet.
"We're at levels now that we haven't seen for 600,000
years or so; we'll shortly be at levels we haven't seen
in over a million years, at which time sea levels were
about 100 feet higher than they are today. That's where
we're heading."
Wanless says he hopes Scott will get the message, adding
that the governor's own home in Naples would be swamped.