From reader James Fossett:
Your readers may be interested in—or dismayed by– this story about Miami, which is possibly the most at-risk city in the country to the effects of sea level rise, yet continues to build and grow as if nothing were going on. Large areas already flood during seasonal high tides, and the city would be toast if hit by even a moderate sized hurricane. Local and state politicians oppose any effort to do anything because it would wreck the economy and won’t even talk in public about the city’s problem. It’s not a question of if, but when.
From the Guardian: Miami, the great world city, is drowning while the powers that be look away
Low-lying south Florida, at the front line of climate change in the US, will be swallowed as sea levels rise. Astonishingly, the population is growing, house prices are rising and building goes on. The problem is the city is run by climate change deniers. * * *
What makes Miami exceptionally vulnerable to climate change is its unique geology. The city – and its satellite towns and resorts – is built on a dome of porous limestone which is soaking up the rising seawater, slowly filling up the city’s foundations and then bubbling up through drains and pipes. Sewage is being forced upwards and fresh water polluted. Miami’s low topography only adds to these problems. There is little land out here that rises more than six feet above sea level. Many condos and apartment blocks open straight on the edge of the sea. Of the total of 4.2 million US citizens who live at an elevation of four feet or less, 2.4 million of them live in south Florida.
Recovery Diva 
While I’ll agree that Miami is in some danger, climate change isn’t the cause – subsidence is much more important (as evidenced by this week’s latest sink hole incident). With ground subsidence levels of up to 8″ in some places (see http://miamigov.com/CapitalImprovements/docs/ProjectPages/RFPDesignBuildBID_Seawall/Document1ExhibitA.pdf), the effects of “rising sea levels” (about one inch per decade) – overblown as they are, are relatively small. The fixes are different as well – subsidence has nothing to do with carbon and a lot to do with land use. So fault the city managers as “deniers” if you will, I fault the “alarmists” for focusing attention on the wrong problem and so offering no real solutions.