South Florida, our sea-level rise problem is urgent
You know the boiling frog story. A frog is put in a pot of water that is slowly brought to a boil. By the time the frog senses danger, it’s too late. Froggie’s a goner.
Well, wake up, folks. South Florida is ground zero for sea-level rise and unless we address the insidious rise of water around us, much of our region, our culture and our legacy is going to disappear.
We’re already seeing things we’ve never seen before: sunny-day flooding, sea water bubbling up from stormwater drains, flood-control gates that can’t open because water on the coastal side is higher than the inland side, saltwater intrusion in more drinking water wells, the Intracoastal Waterway spilling over seawalls, drainage canals lapping at sidewalks, gravity-driven stormwater systems hampered by the rising water table, and people unable to leave their homes during autumn’s king tides.
And don’t forget the octopus that surfaced in a Miami Beach parking garage through a storm drain last year.
Far more dramatic change is coming in the next few decades. By 2060, South Florida’s building codes anticipate a 2-foot rise in sea level, maybe more.
Against this backdrop, what we’re not seeing is state and federal leadership to address the water headed our way.
It’s a shame, really. Millions of residents and billions in real estate are at risk from the threat of sealevel rise from Key West to Jupiter, but state government continues to do precious little to address the issue. And movement on the federal level has all but halted under President Donald Trump’s administration — despite the Trump organization’s own at-risk properties like Mar-a-Lago.
But you don’t have to be a scientist to know that “sea level merits special attention” in Florida, according to Ben Kirtman, a University of Miami climate professor. “There is evidence that at regional scales along the eastern U.S. and in Florida in particular, the sea-level rise is accelerating,” he wrote recently. “There’s no compelling scientific evidence that any of the trends we see will reverse themselves. In fact, the evidence is that current trends will continue for at least the next 25 years, perhaps well beyond ... Even if one is skeptical that human activities are the cause of these trends, there is a clear local need to protect lives and property, and ensure economic opportunity.”
We agree.
That’s why the editorial boards of the region’s three major newspapers — The Palm Beach Post, South Florida Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald, with reporting help from WLRN Public Media — are speaking with one voice again today.
We want to encourage you to make your voice heard on the need to address sea-level rise — the epic challenge of our region.
Local officials who are paying attention don’t want to cause undue panic, but they need your Sea-level rise is an economic imperative for South Florida, yet missing from the political agendas in Tallahassee and Washington. The Invading Sea media collaborative calls on South Florida citizens, lawmakers and business executives to demand government action. calls, letters and emails to get sea-level rise on the agenda in Tallahassee and Washington.
It’s not just about the future. It’s about solving problems of today.
Sea-level rise is an economic imperative.
“For our region right now, investing in improved flood management strategies, flood barriers, storm surge barriers, stormwater management systems, elevating roads, bringing infrastructure out of the flood zone — that is the best thing we can do as a region to preserve our economic competitiveness,” said Jennifer Jurado, Broward County’s chief resiliency officer, during a joint meeting of the editorial boards. “It’s not just about avoiding future flood losses.
It’s about the daily cost of what it requires to operate here under constant flood exposures.”
We also encourage the Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach legislative delegations to convene a summit on sealevel rise. Let them start by addressing this simple question: What level of sea rise is Florida planning for?
Most especially, we encourage corporate leaders to speak up about the peril facing South Florida. Government exists to keep us safe, after all. And as we saw yet again during last year’s push for a new reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee, success came only after the CEOs of Orvis, Maverick Boats, the charter boat fishermen and tourist businesses stepped up.
Like the national debt, sea-level rise is a big, complicated and enormously expensive challenge. And like Congress, the Florida Legislature is not forward-thinking.
Specifically, we need to address flood standards for highways and roads. We need upgrades CONTACT INFORMATION FOR KEY LEADERS: U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson rick.scott@eog.
(202) 224-5274 myflorida.com
716 Senate Hart Office Bill Galvano, incoming Building president, Florida Washington, DC 20510 Senate
To email: https://www. (850) 487-5021 billnelson.senate.gov/ 420 Senate Office contact-bill Building
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio 404 South Monroe Street (202) 224-3041 Tallahassee, FL 323991100 284 Russell Senate Office
Building galvano.bill.web@ Washington, DC 20510 flsenate.gov
To email: https://www. Jose Oliva, incoming rubio.senate.gov/public/ speaker, Florida House index.cfm/contact (850) 717-5110
Gov. Rick Scott 422 The Capitol
(850) 488-7146 402 South Monroe Street Office of the Governor Tallahassee, FL 323991300 The Capitol
400 South Monroe St. jose.oliva@
Tallahassee, FL 323990001 myfloridahouse.gov in drainage, sewage and drinking-water systems. We need standards for seawalls. We need to think differently about coastal development, about areas that repeatedly flood and about whether our region of 6 million people can truly add 3 million more people over the next 40 years, when we’ll have lost 41 percent of coastal wellfield capacity.
At the same time, let us embrace the opportunity before us. South Florida could become a world leader on resiliency — one whose engineering, architectural and public works projects steal the show from the Netherlands’ floating cities. Let us become famous for breakthrough marine research at our colleges and universities. Let us embrace the future — but plan for the future — knowing our region is going to look far different than it does today.
“It was a pretty miserable place to live 100 years ago, but people applied themselves and adapted to the land,” said Jim Murley, Miami-Dade’s chief resiliency officer. “It won’t be the same place, but it will be a place I think we can adapt to and have the kind of economy we’re talking about. But we have to stay on track, and use our universities and innovative capacity, because we’re going to need all those things to deal with the rising sea.”
What we can no longer afford to do is ignore the monster on the riverbank while we ride the rapids of daily life.
For if like that frog, we ignore the water bubbling up around us, South Florida will be a goner.