The Miami Climate Change : Report And Recommendations For Its Improvement

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.

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.

The Everglades mainly found in the United States of America (USA) is a 2 million acre of wetland ecosystem that stretches from the Central of Florida near to Orlando to the Bay of Florida in the south. During rainy seasons, Lake Okeechobee experience upsurge in water volumes causing it to discharge the waters into the “river of grass” that characterize with shallow slow moving water carrying grass marshes. The river flows south and passing through different habitats namely wet prairie, cypress swamps, mangroves, Everglades National Park and lastly into the Florida Bay. The current size of the Everglades is smaller than it was originally. The decrease in size has majorly been due to human activities that include diversions of the water for agriculture and flood control as well as urban development. The Everglades borders the cities of Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. The region is tourist attraction for birders, boaters, and anglers among others. The Everglades ecosystem supports agricultural activities besides supplying clean drinking water to the southern Florida residents. Just like other natural ecosystems like lakes and forests, the Everglades is facing dangers of global warming. The increasing global temperatures are causing a significant change and destruction of its iconic natural appearance. Besides the direct effects, global warming is

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.

Climate change is one of the leading global and political problems we face today. Recently, Texas experienced the worst flooding from a major hurricane in their history. Aside from Harvey in the United States, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal also had dangerous monsoons that caused massive loss of life and property. Although there have been fewer hurricanes in the last decade they have become significantly stronger causing more devastation wherever they make landfall. While Harvey gained strength just before landfall it stalled over Houston causing massive flooding before returning to the Gulf again. Climate change remains a divisive political issue, with a significant percentage of Republicans saying they don’t believe the scientific consensus that man-made industrial emissions are accelerating the rise of global warming due to climate

As of right now, the measured water levels at Virginia Key, Fla., are about eight inches above predicted levels (Washington Post). The numbers surrounding climate change are now starting to become serious and people should be worried for their lives. While Climate Change is a main issue in the world, the problem usually goes overlooked.

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.

From the populus beaches in Miami, Florida, ranging to the snowy ski slopes of Wyoming, climate change is transforming the real estate market. It is thought that climate change is mostly the product of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being released into the air, but many Americans are unaware that if the trend with climate change continues, the financial landscape of real estate will drastically be affected. Insurance cost will increase, the retail value of homes will decrease, and the overall appeal of famous vacation areas will decline if global warming continues to impact the country. Sea levels are rising, hurricanes are destroying entire cities, and heat waves are affecting areas all over the world due to climate change. These

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.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, almost 40% of the population lives in high population-dense coastal areas. Around the world, eight of the world’s ten largest cities are situated near a coast, with about 250 million people living by a coast line less than 5 feet above sea level. It is projected that all of these people will be directly affected in some way by seawater rising in the future (Siegert, 2017). For the county of Orleans Parish, the rapid loss of coastal land is not a future scenario, but a current reality. Due to our unique geography, Louisiana loses about 16 square miles a year; the rapid erosion of Louisiana’s cost is only expected to accelerate over time. (Wernick, 2014).

Decades of research suggest that sea-levels are rising, and will continue to rise as a result of climate change. This rise will have the most immediate and significant impact on

Today, sea levels are rising from the effects of global warming. There are two main causes of the rise of sea levels are thermal expansion and the increase of the melting of land-based ice (US Department of Commerce, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2008). Humans burning coal and oil and cutting down tropical forests can have increased atmospheric concentrations. Causing the earth’s temperature to rise, glaciers and ice sheets to melt, thermal expansion to appear, and sea levels to rise (Causes of Sea Level Rise: What the Science Tells Us, 2013). Due to rising sea levels, 13.1 million Americans must be displaced from their homes along the coast. Since 1880, the planet has warmed by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit