"By century's end, rising sea levels will turn the nation's urban fantasyland into an American Atlantis. But long before the city is completely underwater, chaos will begin... Read on..."
Miami after a thunderstorm. Photo by CNTraveler.
Adios, Miami!
Why?
Because Rolling Stone said so...
This is Jeff Goodell's assertion in the current issue (July 4 - 18, 2013) of the magazine, which paints a doomsday scenario of the Magic City that will surely raise some eyebrows, as a lot of it is certainly within the realm of plausibility, but will hardly cause widespread panic--at least not in the next 20 years.
Rising sea levels as a direct result of global warming is not a notion I'm willing to challenge (you won't catch ME standing on the wrong side of history along with characters like the ignominious Gov. Rick Scott), but basing some of the argument on the current state of ineffectual local governments may not tell the whole story as to how this is going to be dealt with in the coming decades.
Fortunately, Goodell does point out a few (though he thinks they are unlikely to ultimately succeed) solutions. One of them is adapting to what may eventually become some sort of modern-day Venice; a series of archipelago-like spits of land strewn throughout the region from present-day Palm Beach to Miami's Coconut Grove. Goodell mentions the chair of the architecture department of my beloved school, Florida International University's John Stuart, as the brainchild behind the infrastructure transformation needed in the city. "It's pretty clear that we are not going to be able to stop the water from coming in, so how will we live?" said Stuart who is inspired with the challenge of it all.
I pray Goodell and Stuart are off in their calculations...
A 30-foot rise would eradicate our region.