Since 2000 the Gulf of Florida has gotten 4 inches higher It might not sound like much but the Keys are not much more than a few feet higher. I do not know how they survive a major hurricane’s storm surge. Maybe that is why most buildings are ramshackle.

The Florida Governor might be a climate change denier but the state pumps money into Miami and other coastal cities to counter rising sea levels. Miami is raising street levels so ground floors of today will become basements in the near future. The future of the Keys and islands on both coasts will be under water in the next few decades.

Conservative estimates for 2040 for ocean and Gulf waters to raise another twelve inches. The number is considered to be a low estimate because most computer programs have not been able to incorporate the rapidly changing factors and physics of warming seas. Warmer seas means greater number of storms and hurricanes with greater intensity. The latter means more category three, four, and five hurricanes with two and three story storm surges. Each foot of sea rise means those surges go farther inland.

Unless we figure out some way to reduce global warming or massive volcano activity happens, coastal cities from San Antonio, Texas to Bar Harbor, Maine will be under water in a century or so. Think of Florida being mostly underwater. Disney World will change. They will be building beach front businesses for a few more decades before it goes under water.

Old adages apply to the future of the World and especially the United States. The frog and boiling water and eating dessert first in case you are not around for the entree definitely apply. The change is rapidly increasing but many in American leadership would rather cater to money and duped voters than to take action to save the US.