Florida Sinking Fast - Climate Crisis 247

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Anyone who looks at the flood plain maps from Miami to Naples to Tampa will see that much of the Florida coast will be underwater well before 2050. The problem is so severe that home insurance in areas close to these coasts has skyrocketed. In some cases, people cannot buy flood insurance at all.

Climate Crisis —Across The Globe

No matter how deep the problem, people continue to move into Florida, and in some places like Tampa, in record numbers. The rich continue to pay millions, if not tens of millions, for views of the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico. But is residential real estate the only problem?

Do rising seas threaten Florida businesses along the state’s coast? That question will be answered soon based on a $9 million grant to the Florida International University. According to the Miami Herald, “Florida International University plans to use that cash to fund a network of wells along the coast that could offer new insight into exactly how sea level rise is already changing the landscape underground — and what kind of threat the thousands of high rises along the coast could face.”

The funders may want to save their money. Virtually every other study of the state’s coastal areas and flood plains shows that by 2050, ocean and Gulf waters will encroach on low-lying areas, costing residents and businesses tens of billions of dollars and driving them inland.