Opinion by the Miami Herald Editorial Board, June 12, 2024:
“It’s like an unspoken social contract. When people choose to live in South Florida, they must make peace with the possibility that, thanks to hurricanes, there will be flooding and they may incur thousands of dollars to fix their homes post storm. But that’s supposed to be during a major storm with a name — like Irma, Ian or Andrew — not any given day during heavy rains as it happened Wednesday in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.”
The editorial continues, “When we hear about the threat of flooding and sea-level rise caused by climate change, that may appear like a distant future. It’s not …” (read the entire editorial here).
Welcome to climate change, deniers. Global warming is happening, whether you believe it or not. The scientists are right, whether you believe them or not. Your personal beliefs can’t stop it, but ignoramuses are making it worse by obstructing efforts to head off a planetary emergency.
I don’t believe climate catastrophe will be averted. Humans are too fickle, too focused on today, and too invested in their self-interests to take a longer view of the risk to humanity. But climate events are occurring today, and to specific people. On June 12, 2024, CNN reported here,
“Multiple communities across South Florida — including the Miami and Fort Lauderdale areas — flooded Wednesday amid bouts of torrential rain …. In Miami, video showed stranded cars that were nearly entirely submerged under water. … Wednesday [was] Fort Lauderdale’s eighth wettest day on record … the area will likely see over a month’s worth of rainfall by midnight. … While the state is no stranger to drenching rain, heavy rain events are getting even heavier as the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution. The daily downpours are also being fueled by a firehose of tropical moisture from parts of the Caribbean funneling straight into South Florida along a front draped over the state.”
Climate change and weather are different. As I write this, south Floridians are feeling the effects of climate change and weather, like a one-two punch. As the planet continues to warm, it’s going to get worse, not better.
I feel for those people, of course, but mostly I feel numb. Florida is a hotbed of climate-denying conservative politics. The people running that place are ostriches with their heads in the sand. A catastrophic sea level rise would mean there won’t even be a Florida except as an underwater reef (story here, map below).
Climate change isn’t just bringing torrential rains, more frequent and violent storms, disrupted weather patterns, wildfires, droughts, and flooding; it will also disrupt agriculture, submerge coastal cities, force entire populations to relocate, and trigger conflicts as climate refugees try to move into already-occupied lands.
But we’re an intelligent species, right? Am I optimistic we’ll think our way out of this? Absolutely not. We’re not nearly as smart as we’d like to believe, or humanity would cooperate on preventing climate disaster, instead of bickering while the ice caps melt.
