Literature Report

The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in this country, according to scientists. Sea-level rise alone threatens thirty percent of the state’s beaches over the next 85 years. Climate change and global warming refer to the body of scientific evidence showing that the earth’s environment is warming due to human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. It is accepted science all over the world. Climate change in Florida has many effects such as the increase of our sea level and global warming this issue will cause a dramatic change in 2050.

There are many areas in Tampa that will be unfortunately underwater. As we saw with the heavy rains in late 2015, the most vital areas such as Westshore Ave, South Tampa, Bayshore Ave, and even Downtown had major flooding causing delays in traffic and safety anxieties. While the flooding only lasted a few days, the event brought attention to the Tampa’s faulty infrastructure and drainage systems. An alarming thought is how Tampa will be able to protect itself from a storm or the rising sea levels if the drainage systems are inadequate. The Tampa Bay area is due for a natural disaster any day now; the coastal area is highly vulnerable. According to Sara Kerr, “One place that we have to look carefully at is Tampa where there is a huge concentration at risk from a storm surge, but there hasn’t been an event for 150 years and so the city is fairly complacent about its risk” (2015). A possible catastrophe can pose as an environmental challenge in Tampa Bay as the highly populous areas will not be able to withstand rising sea levels that will occur.

Florida’s environment is a sub-tropical atmosphere, with hundreds of species of animals. Along the coast is were Florida’s natural wildlife and vegetation thrive; however, Florida has a serious issue that impacts its coastal environment. Each year global warming contributes to rising sea levels across the globe. Although Florida’s Coastal environment has survived for thousands of years, the increasing sea level along the gulf coast over recent years, has caused severe damage. Additional research is needed to understand the impact of rising waters on Florida’s Coastal eco-system.

If nothing happens to improve the current issues, rising waters will continue to rise, corrosion and erosion will worsen, and further damage will be inflicted on buildings, homes, cars, roadways and infrastructure as a whole. Additionally, not only will the infrastructure face failure, fishery and wildlife will experience extinctions and continue to drop in numbers, farms will face struggles of production and disbursement. Consequently, the export market for Florida commodities will see a huge drop in numbers, damaging the state of the market for imports and exports in Florida. These problems are severe and will cause residents to flee the area. If residents move away, then the budgets of both the City and the County governments will take a huge loss. It seems as though the cycle does not end. The Tampa Bay area needs residents, because with residents you have an income of tax dollars. Tax dollars are important for the sustainability of public goods. When the income of tax dollars is reduced, then the effects are felt in all areas of the budget system. But with and influx of residents comes more pollution and use of resources. This “gloom and doom” outlook does not have to be the case. To ensure a brighter outlook and future for the Tampa Bay area, we must consider

Rising sea level can be caused by a variety of factors and can have an effect or influence even more. Future changes in sea level may impact human populations around the world and many other aspects of life on Earth more than many initially thought. The U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico is on track to be one of the most impacted by further sea level rise and the outcome could be detrimental to the entire coastline.

People living in Miami are in the face of danger, and for the most part they are not aware of it. Due to high population, Miami is the fourth largest city to become affected by sea level rise. (Ankum et al.) In the next 32-50 years, sea level is expected to rise by as much as two feet. (Ankum et al.) This two-foot rise will have detrimental effects on the urban settings of Miami. The amount of soil erosion that is undergoing at our beaches will greatly increase if a two-foot rise occurs. At a four-foot rise, road connectivity would begin to become affected. At a six-foot rise, Southern Florida would no longer be habitable as it would, for the most part, be underwater. Not much is being invested in mitigation efforts, most of what is being done are short term solutions. Instead of coming up with ideas to prevent and try to slow down the effects of climate change on our environment, we are focusing on ideas such as building up a sea wall, relocating power plants, and redesigning structures.

Since 1880, records show that the sea level has bone up 8 inches. If it goes up six more inches, as the current studies indicate could happen within 20 years, South Florida’s flood control would be devastated. 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.

The Florida Reef provides many benefits to our world. The coral living in it are part of the phylum Cnidaria which a group of invertebrates. Though it may provide many benefits to us, we provide many dangers to it. Our debris and overfishing can damage the Florida reef along with many other coral reefs. Not only that, due to over excessive tourists and their recklessness, we are endangering the Florida Reef even more. So how can human action improve the ocean ecosystem that is the home to the many species of the Florida reef? One is by polluting less. We can also fish more carefully and help reduce runoff. We can help the Florida Reef and it can continue to benefit us.

Vast beaches, amusement parks and resorts are all places that are abundant in Florida. There are numerous interesting things to visit, and numerous neighborhood’s that would suit a family of any kind scattered through the state. The Unique clash of skyscraper cities that are minutes away from the ocean front and year round warm temperatures make this an ideal place for people who are seeking warm weather and a change of scenery. It also makes Florida a very popular place to live, with 365 thousand people moving here a year, around 25 thousand of which move into Marion and the surrounding county 's, this state has a large influx of new residence which has made Florida the 3rd most populated state in America (Business Insider, ppiofmarioncounty.org). The massive influx of new people leads to a near constant expansion of cities and towns that are filled to the max, making the amount of natural forest in Florida shrink daily. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s report, History of Florida 's Conservation Lands, states:

In a World Health Organization publication titled “Environmental Health in Emergencies and Disasters: A Practical Guide, disasters are defined as “events that occur when significant numbers of people are exposed to extreme events to which they are vulnerable, with resulting injury and loss of life, often combined with damage to property and livelihoods” (Wisner & Adams, 2002). These disasters can be natural or man-made; one type of natural disaster are those of hurricanes. Hurricanes are large, powerful storms that can create winds of 74 miles per hour or higher. Swirling winds can cause significant damage to buildings and trees, heavy precipitation can result in severe flooding, and the emergency situations that arise during and after hurricanes can greatly impact the health and well being of many individuals, particularly the vulnerable population of elderly individuals residing in nursing homes (NASA, 2017; Wisner & Adams, 2002).

Miami, Florida experiences a great amount of natural disasters; however, one of the largest disasters Miami fears is affects of global change. Rising global temperatures scares most environmentalist in the Miami area, because rising temperatures results in rising sea levels. So, what is the problem with rising sea levels? Well, environmental specialist has made predictions that the rising sea levels could submerge the beaches of Miami.

Human Development is the reason why Florida has water-supply problems. In the nineteenth century, the Everglades submerged more than half of Florida’s 36 million acres in clean, fresh water (43). Our water supply problems commenced when the SFWMD and the Army Corps of Engineers began draining and paving over the everglades in the early twentieth century. With concrete covering the ground, the 150 billion gallons of rainfall received has since been unable to filter down into the ground and replenish the aquifer. Instead that rainfall becomes run-off. The run-off does not return into natural watersheds,

The rise of sea levels are projected to increase warmer waters from one and a half to two degrees in Central North Pacific in 2050, 1.9 to 2.6 degrees in Northern Islands, and also two to five degrees in the Caribbean at the end of this century. This rise of temperature decreases the life of ecosystems in the ocean and resulting in less freshwater for

Further, analyze and understand the adequacy of the measures taken to adapt future climate change induced hazard risks. I have developed my capacity by doing the Masters’ Degrees in Disaster Management and Emergency Management with a research work.

The combination of these and other trends was an estimated average sea-level increase of 1.5mm per year between 1961 and 2003, which reached 2.4mm per year in the decade from 1993 to 2003. The decades prior to this trend showed only minor fluctuations in sea-level, suggesting that the current rate exceeds what could be caused by natural cycles. While the exact impact of rising oceans is difficult to determine, it is certain that the consequences will include some degree of flooding, integration of salt water into water tables, and a loss of land due to coastal erosion and submersion.6