We'll be measuring sea level rise in feet, not inches Editorial
As great minds have told us--#globalwarming is here! Now!
We’ll be measuring sea level rise in feet, not inches | Editorial
The real-world impacts of climate change are accelerating for us in Tampa Bay.
https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2019/11/15/well-be-measuring-sea-level-rise-in-feet-not-inches-editorial/
Using a tool provided by NOAA, this map shows what parts of the Tampa Bay region would be underwater if sea levels rose 8 feet, which could happen by 2100. [NOAA]
By Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board
Published Nov. 15
Take out a 30-year mortgage on a house in the Tampa Bay area, and by the time it is paid off the sea level will have likely risen 1 or even 2 feet, according to the Tampa Bay Climate Science Advisory Panel. Climate change is no abstract concept. It is here, it is getting worse and it’s coming harder and faster than scientists expected even a few years ago. The only uncertainty now is just how bad it will get and when. Those who fail to act -- or worse, continue to deny it -- will have to answer to their children and grandchildren, who will be forced to live with the effects of their elders’ folly.
A recent poll of Floridians by Florida Atlantic University captures this new reality, with 68 percent agreeing that climate change “has them concerned about the well-being of future generations in Florida." Just 28 percent said government is doing enough to address it. Even 44 percent of Florida Republicans now agree that climate change is real and primarily caused by human activities. That should wake up politicians in Washington and Tallahassee.
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It was singularly unhelpful for President Donald Trump to formally announce this month that the United States is abandoning the Paris Accords, leaving nearly 200 other nations to figure out how to cut greenhouse emissions without the support of the world’s largest economy, as Trump continues to favor fossil fuels over renewable energy and deny that climate change is even a worry. Until national leadership changes, Florida and the Tampa Bay region are effectively on their own. Meanwhile, sunny day flooding will become more common, and hurricanes will become more powerful as their storm surges pile walls of water on to already elevated sea levels. It’s been only a year since Hurricane Michael blew up into a Category 5 as it slammed the Panhandle, a hurricane that wasn’t supposed to be able to grow in strength so quickly.
For a long time, climate reports focused on moderate estimates of the effects of climate change. But now researchers are discovering that the effects are snowballing, that the seas aren’t just rising but are rising at a faster rate, that the climate isn’t just warming but it’s doing so more quickly. Additional effects such as the magnifying impacts of ice sheet instabilities are adding new layers of worry to the science. Predictions that seemed extreme not long ago are coming to pass, and the new normal is decidedly abnormal. As the science becomes more precise and more sophisticated, the numbers are bigger and more worrisome, and the timeline for action grows shorter.................
