Climate Change Is an Abstract Concept - Unless You Live in Miami
For years, residents of Dade County, FL thought of climate change as an abstract concept. Hurricane Irma in September 2017, drenched Miami and gave the city a wakeup call. Real estate developers had been aware of the effects of climate change by buying up higher elevation lower value properties and razing them. New developments were considered temporary because they built apartments and condominiums with a plan to sell them within 5 years before water lapped at their doors.
According to the New York Times, millions of dollars of pumps and tidal valves are needed to keep the streets of Miami and Miami Beach dry even on sunny days.
New temperature records for this time of year have been experienced in Florida. The temperature hit 111 in Paris last week. It hit 95 in Anchorage, Alaska. It is estimated that the Center for Climate Integrity, an advocacy group, states that Florida could have to build $76 billion of sea walls by 2040.
Are you listening in Savannah and New York?
Hurricanes have always clobbered Dade, Broward Counties and the Keys. The difference this time is the storm surges that destroy dry wall, wood floors, furniture and entire towns. Those of us who live at the New Jersey shore found out that as damaging as the wind can be, storm surge can be even more devastating. After Hurricane Sandy, my friend who owns a clothing store in Sea Bright, NJ which specializes in college sportswear, remembers the sight of many of his Rutgers sweat shirts floating in the Shrewsbury River because of the storm surge, not the wind. An eternal optimist, he has built a bigger store as have many of the merchants in Sea Bright.
I remember retrieving my sailboat, aptly named Gone with the Wind, from the town on the other side of the Shrewsbury River, flipped over onto someone’s fence. We got to know the Maryland State Troopers and Alabama Power and Light workers who came for weeks to get us back to some semblance of normal. We brought them sandwiches and held barbeques for them out of sheer gratitude. We take pride knowing that New Jersey workers go to other states during emergencies in this great country.
Lots of our houses had to be elevated to be rebuilt. One of my friends sold his beautiful, but water-soaked, home in Rumson, NJ and now lives in Naples, FL and Paris, France.
Half of the residents of Miami-Ft. Lauderdale have disclosed that they have had to make physical changes to their homes in the past year to protect against sea level rise, flooding or extreme weather. Attitudes have changed. The former mayor of Miami Beach said, “No one has to sit in a kayak in the middle of Alton Road to say to their elected officials, this is the issue I am talking about.”
According to the Times, “The state of Florida’s fate hinges on how it will handle global warming.” You will see how that subject forces its way to the top of current forthcoming political discussions because it must.
This vibrant city, Miami is facing draconian changes. The most desirable water front properties may well become the least desirable.
Who wants an under-water mega mansion?
Climate change is also responsible for much of the refugee crisis in Central America and Africa. Yes, drugs and gangs are driving citizens out of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, but the major factor is drought. It has gotten so hot and dry that they can’t grow adequate crops. If you live in those countries you face the choice of starvation or the huge risks of sending your kids north.
Even France and Germany are clamoring for air conditioners, devices they scorned until temperatures broke existing records this summer.
The same is true of parts of Africa where crops have withered and created a refugee crisis that has strained European resources and also caused the rise of the far right in many European counties who want those people out of their country no matter what their fate.
We are now seeing record flooding of the Missouri and other Midwest Rivers because of unprecedented rainfall. California had been ravaged by huge forest fires because of record and prolonged heat. Some parts of the state are being abandoned by utilities like Pacific Electric and Gas because they can’t control the ignition of forests by their power lines.
The Arctic is shrinking which will cause the movement of people and animals whose living areas become uninhabitable. Our shipping routes will shift to the Arctic between North America, Europe, Russia and China. Russia has built a major fleet of icebreakers. The US hasn’t. All of this has national security and economic implications.
Islands around the world are shrinking or disappearing as today in Fiji. Fish, animals and insects are migrating northward. Polar bears and other animals are drowning. Every group of people and every sector of our economy will feel the impact of the climate crisis. That will mean every community must get organized and prepare to tackle this crisis head on.
A number of our political leaders characterize climate change as crying wolf. I hate to tell you, folks, the wolf is a t the door.
What do you think?
Ira Friedman