Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumFlorida Keys Facing At Least 3' Of Sea Level Rise By 2100: "There's A Hard Truth Here"
?t=11More here from my interview with Andrea Dutton in December, at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
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Projections point to more than three feet of sea-level rise by 2100, posing deep challenges for one of the U.S.s most iconic tourist sites the Florida Keys, where in many places residences, highways, and infrastructure are at less than three feet. Moreover, those 2100 projections almost give you a false sense of complacency, cautions scientist and 2019 MacArthur genius fellowship winner Andrea Dutton. She says in this months Yale Climate Connections This Is Not Cool video that extreme storms affecting the Keys will occur with increasing frequency as you approach 2100, and well before that three-foot average rise takes hold.
Dutton expresses concerns that the public may not be in the right mindset concerning time projections for rising sea levels. You cant just pick up cities and move them, she says. Theres going to be some amount of adaptation, theres going to be some amount of retreat leading up to the period when that overall three-foot average is, as they say, the new normal.
Dutton, for eight years with the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida, now continues her research with the University of Wisconsins Geoscience Department. Snow is fun, she said in a fall 2019 U.W. announcement of her move from sunny Gainesville to often frosty Madison. Explaining to those curious about her move from the Atlantic coast to the Midwest, she said I look at these sea-level projections all the time. I can see whats coming, and its miserable.
Dutton is far from alone in expressing concerns about the impacts of sea-level rise for the Florida Keys. For instance, another scientist, Maya Becker, now with Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla California, recalls growing up on Key Biscayne barrier island, just south of Miami Beach. She says she worries that parts could be completely submerged in the next 50 or so years.
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https://climatecrocks.com/2020/05/28/new-video-breaking-bad-news-in-florida-keys/
dhill926
(16,234 posts)actually delayed by the virus. We're in our 60's, but still...worsening storms are a worry...
If you were in your late 70s I'd say "go for it" because you can just enjoy your last few years. But if you're in your 60s and in good health, you're setting yourself up for climate catastrophes as you age and have less stamina to cope. Ten years from now, for instance, how well will you deal with storm surges, evacuations, or being stranded on the keys?
dhill926
(16,234 posts)as we own a house in Indianapolis. But KW has been a dream since we lived in South Florida during the 80's. We're in very good health...so we'll probably give it a shot. But nothing is a certainty in these times...
Finishline42
(1,091 posts)This about the Key Largo area last year
https://www.npr.org/2019/11/28/783349974/this-florida-keys-neighborhood-has-been-flooded-for-nearly-3-months
Sea walls don't help one of the problems with the rising sea water - salt water - because of the porous composition of the land.
dhill926
(16,234 posts)it's always somethin'...
Boomer
(4,159 posts)And they absolutely love it, so best of luck.
it is a special place....hope it stays that way...