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Will Miami Become the Lost City of Atlantis?

Rising seas and sinking cities.

I really liked this fresh air podcast, Climate Change Journalist Warns: 'Mother Nature Is Playing By Different Rules Now'.

It is a wide-ranging discussion with Jeff Goodell, author of a new book, The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized WorldI personally ordered a Kindle copy.

I highly recommend you listen to or read the text from the podcast. A few things that were takeaways for me:

  • Soot from wildland fires is ending up in the Arctic and covering the ice fields there. That black substance is something that can hasten the warming and subsequent melting of the ice. Thus, we see the interdependencies of different climate issues, forest fires hastening the advent of more sea rise.
  • Goodell seems to take a balanced viewpoint. He is not some wild-eyed fanatic claiming this or that as definite proof of climate change and its impact on disasters. Yet, he does provide all this anecdotal evidence that illustrates how some people and organizations are trying to implement adaptation measures.
  • The piece on Norfolk Navy Station is illustrative of the challenges people in government are having. I recall another story where Navy officials go before Congress and talk not about climate change, but "coastal flooding," because they know funding won't be appropriated for measures meant to mitigate anything tied to climate science. 
  • Then there is the issue of science. Science is ever changing. You can't take one report and say. "This is the definitive document. We now know exactly what is going on." Goodell points out that climate science can be very complicated and we keep learning more as we go along. 
  • Lastly, there are the climate deniers who appear to be more beholden to monied interests, to the point they are willing to sacrifice the future of our nation and the world in order to fuel the money machine of politics. Their children and grandchildren will rue this time in our nation's history. 
 

 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.