South Florida Environmental Issues

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.

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.

Current Environmental Challenges in the Tampa Bay Area Based on Global Issues Related to Earth Systems

Sadly, prospects are not fruitful since the government’s plate is full now with other issues pending. The Effect of pesticide runoffs on the Everglades is destroying one Florida’s major tourist attractions due to the cultivation of sugar cane just to mention one of those responsible and creates a loss of natural habitat, water pollution, and threatens existence of wildlife. Few politicians, planners, farmers or scientists have been trained with, or are qualified to pull off resuscitation of the Everglades. The political influence in this sector is not strong enough to wheel a new life in the farmland. Considering all of the pressures and demands to implement these simple

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 the 1960’s and 1970’s, the public consensus for environmental concerns like in the Florida Everglades “has faded somewhat as a political issue” (Babbitt, 2007; p 44-45). However, it wasn't until 2000, the Clinton Administration signed the Everglades Restoration legislation into law. (Babbitt, 2007), (Dedekorkut, 2003). And once again political attention had been focused on the preservation of ecosystem resources concerning the Florida Everglades. Along with its polarized atmosphere, scholars have long debated the role partisan politics plays in the water resource policy for the South Florida, Everglades.

What can you expect from flooding. Loss of life and damage to both buildings and other structures. Floods can also damage power systems which then cause the effected area to be without power. With the loss of power, water treatment plants are also effected. This could cause loss of water or even contamination. Floods can also damage roadways which would make it hard to get aid to the effected areas. South Florida is a major tourist location. Flooding can cause economic problems with the reduced tourism. Flooding of homes can cause severe medical problems. When a home is flooded the water saturates the walls and other places which can grow mold. This will cause respiratory problems and other health issues. (Flood)

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.

Jeff Goodell's book introduces an inside look at rising sea levels and their effect on our world. Goodell's book describes a journey to different cities and towns to figure out how to conform to sea levels that are continuing to rise. He travels to places like small Alaskan villages, to the city of Lagos, and returns throughout the book to Miami. Miami is one of the areas that demonstrated the challenges of trying to keep the ocean at bay. According to Goodell, because of carbon dioxide emissions, sea level rising is guaranteed. People need to help the problem by lowering the emissions of these toxic gases.

Saltwater intrusion leading to contaminated drinking water wells has long been feared in South Florida. Saltwater intrusion occurs naturally to some degree in most coastal aquifers, owing to the hydraulic connection between groundwater and seawater. Because saltwater has a higher mineral content than freshwater, it is denser and has a higher water pressure. There are three primary mechanisms by which saltwater contaminates the freshwater reservoir in the unconfined, surficial aquifers of the region: one, subsurface movement of seawater (lateral large-scale intrusion), two, seepage of seawater from tidal canals and streams, and three, upward movement of connate saltwater (water remaining from the

Cities in Florida also lack the technology, money and manpower to keep back the seas by themselves (“Sea rise”, 2015). Despite warnings from water experts and climate scientists about risks to cities and drinking water, skepticism over sea-level projections and climate-change science has hampered planning efforts at all levels of

Thermal expansion and the melting of continental ice sheets and glaciers are raising sea levels. Predictions are complicated with this issue because as the atmosphere absorbs more and more greenhouse gases the faster the melting will occur. When only 1% of the three largest ice bodies on Earth melt, the Greenland ice sheet, the west Antarctic ice sheet, and the east Antarctic ice sheet, there is a sea level rise of 76 cm, which is not including the melt runoff from smaller glaciers and ice sheets all over the world. Now this is simply a rise in the water level, however combining sea level rise with land subsidence will amplify flooding (subsidence is the sinking of continental land which occurs after subduction zone earthquakes, ground water over use, and has many other causes). Every coast line will change, flooding the most populated and dangerous areas, I say dangerous because nuclear power plants are built on the coasts to access sea water for facility cooling and catastrophic damage will add additional poisons and toxic nuclear waste that will travel around the planet. (SkepticalScience). In 2008 there is an estimated 20 million climate refugees, as these events continue it is projected that there will be 200 million climate refugees by the year 2050.

Human-caused rise in sea levels is occurring all over the globe. Large areas along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast have experienced considerably higher frequencies of relative increases in sea level than the worldwide average over the past half-century, with the local variations essentially because of land subsistence (USGCRP, 2009). On the other hand, parts of the coast in Alaska and the Northwest have experienced a minor fall in the sea level due to a continuing uplift resulting from melting of glaciers and other geology-related processes.

Many of these people are in developing countries that are ill equipped to deal with the problem (monaghan). When the water levels rise, all of these people will be forced to relocate as their whole cities, towns, and homes go underwater due to climate change in Antarctica. In places like Florida, Bangladesh, and other low-lying areas, even modest increases in sea levels—the kind possible before the beginning of the next century—would have dire, civilization-changing consequences (monaghan). According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), sea levels have been rising about three millimeters per year since 1993 – totaling a 200 millimeter increase (7.87 inches) in global averaged sea level since 1870. This is a threat to many lives all over the world and is fast approaching us. Glaciers also contain billions of gallons of freshwater, meaning a rapid melt could mess with the salinity of the ocean. Since our salty ocean absorbs much of the carbon dioxide we pump into the air, that’s not the best scenario for global warming (Atkin). Global warming will continue to get worse if we do not change our ways now.