Seas Rise, Florida GOP Leaders Balk At Climate Change. From the article:

There are few places in the nation more vulnerable to rising sea levels than low-lying South Florida, a tourist and retirement mecca built on drained swampland.

Yet as other coastal states and the Obama administration take aggressive measures to battle the effects of global warming, Florida’s top Republican politicians are challenging the science and balking at government fixes.

Among the chief skeptics are U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush, both possible presidential candidates in 2016. Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for re-election, has worked with the Republican-controlled Legislature to dismantle Florida’s fledgling climate change initiatives. They were put into place by his predecessor and current opponent, Democrat Charlie Crist.

From James Fossett, the following note regarding a June 1 article in the WashPost titled In Norfolk, Evidence of Climate Change Is in the Streets at High Tide.

For those of us on the East Coast who worry about sea level rise, the area around Norfolk Virginia is emerging as a poster child for where the rest of us are going to be in twenty or thirty years. Sea level is rising faster in this area than anywhere else on the East Coast, partly because the land is also sinking. As this article from the Washington Post notes, the population in the Norfolk area at risk from sea level rise is second only to New Orleans. Flooding of surface streets during high tide is common—one local church even prints tide tables on its Web site, so that parishioners know if they can get to church on Sunday.

It’s happening faster in Virginia than elsewhere, but the entire East Coast from Cape Hatteras to Boston has been designated a “sea level rise hotspot” by the US Geological Survey, with projected rates of rise well above the global average. Possible solutions, ranging from sea walls to buyouts, are all very expensive and beyond the capacity of the affected state and local governments. In the current budget environment, substantial federal support seems unlikely as well.

In a recent interview with a reporter, the diva discussed some of the many reasons that recovery is hard to do and why there is no template to guide officials responsible for recovery.

Here is one aspect that complicates rebuilding along the NJ coast. See Projections show sea level at Jersey Shore could rise 31 inches by 2050. Even if the number of inches is not precisely accurate, sea level rise as a factor for the planners is sobering.

PS: The Diva tried to reach the author of the article to try to get a primary source of that info but has not yet succeeded.

 A large scale response to the problem of sea level rise in the New York City area seems unlikely to emerge at this stage of the recovery from Superstorm Sandy, according to a report just released by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. Co-authors Rockefeller Institute Senior Fellow James Fossett and University at Buffalo Research Professor Kathryn Friedman argue that a response will be delayed by differences in policy preferences between governors and mayors that aren’t likely to be negotiated under current arrangements and political difficulties in securing funding for federal agencies to take a leadership role. To access the report, go to www.rockinst.org.

Thanks to Wanda Headley for the link.

Two readers of this blog have called to my attention the ongoing efforts in Boston to take action on seal level rise: see the new report titled “Preparing for a Rising Tide.”

Full Report (80 pp):

The Diva welcomes comments and recommended links from readers.

An enlargeable map of the Republic of Maldives (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In an article from HSWire, see Maldives to build floating islands to save country from rising sea levels
August 27,  2012. Afe details:

The Maldives Islands, a low-lying chain of twenty-six atolls in the Indian Ocean, are sinking; more precisely: due to global warming, the sea level is rising over the islands, most of which sit lower than three feet above the rising water; the Maldives government has embarked on an ambitious project: build floating islands, anchor them to the ocean floor, then relocate most of the population of 300,000 – and some of the tourist attractions – to them

Related articles

• Maldives floating island masterplan tests the waters (phys.org)
• Artificial “floating” islands could replace the sinking Maldives [Futurism] (io9.com)
• Floating Housing (And Golf Courses) For Post-Climate Change Island Paradises (fastcoexist.com)

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