You Can Ban Words, But They Still Exist

Global warming is happening. All the arguments postulated by our political leaders doesn’t change that a bit. It's action that counts, not words, and we need action now.

Unfortunately, the only action that seems to be taking place is the spewing of words from said politicians. And that should scare the hell out of anyone living in southeast Florida.

Despite Gov. Rick Scott’s edict that the phrases “climate change” and “global warming” be banned from the official government lexicon, water levels are rising and the region is at risk.

Last weekend, the 3rd Annual Sea Level Rise Symposium took place at the Oxbridge Academy of the Palm Beaches, which featured a series of presentations, workshops and forums on topics ranging from how new resiliency design strategies for southeast Florida and business planning for a changing environment, to mitigating the sea level rise effects on the Everglades and community disaster preparedness.

South Florida is caught in the crosshairs of global warming. And right now, the future doesn’t look pretty. A number of models have been created - several of them are available  online - and all of them basically tell the same story: a sea level rise of only a few feet would inundate thousands of acres of highly developed land and beach communities along Florida's Atlantic Coast, the Florida Keys, and the Florida Gulf Coast. Significant flooding and environmental change would also be experienced in the Everglades.

“This is not a future problem. It’s a current problem,” said Leonard Berry, director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University and a contributing author of the National Climate Assessment, which found that sea levels have risen about 8 inches in the past century. A recent Florida Atlantic University study estimates that just 6 more inches of sea level rise - very plausible within two decades - would cripple about half of South Florida’s flood control capacity.

According to Climate Central, some 2.4 million people and 1.3 million homes in Florida sit within 4 feet of the local high tide line. Sea level rise is more than doubling the risk of a storm surge at this level in South Florida by 2030. The global average sea level has gone up about 8 inches since 1880. In South Florida, taxpayers are already paying the price for climate change as salt water pushes through porous bedrock into coastal drinking-water supplies, and rivers and canals choked by heavy rains have a harder time draining into the ocean.

So what can we do to create action, not talk? Despite the obvious issues, that’s easier said that done. The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact Counties’ 2012 “Regional Climate Action Plan” (http://www.southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org//wp-content/uploads/2014/09/regional-climate-action-plan-final-ada-compliant.pdf) developed 110 action items in seven goal areas, to be accomplished over five years. Policy recommendations would be implemented through several approaches, including:

• existing legal structures, planning and decision-making processes;
• the development of new policy guiding documents by local and regional governing bodies;
• the development of operational guidance documents;
• the development of consistent goals and progress indicators throughout the various
• governments in the region;
• a coordinated multi-disciplinary outreach and education program; and
• processes for focused and prioritized investments.

Suffice to say, the problems associated with climate change are numerous, and solving them will take time and money.

But action is needed, regardless of our political leaderships’ rhetoric.