The climate is warming and the water is rising. In his new book,Jeff Goodell argues that sea-level rise will reshape our world in ways we can only initiate to imagineAfter the hurricane hit Miami in 2037, a foot of sand covered the famous bow-tie floor in the lobby of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. A dead manatee floated in the pool where Elvis had once swum. Most of the damage came not from the hurricane’s 175-mile-an-hour winds, and but from the twenty-foot storm surge that overwhelmed the low-lying city. In South Beach,historic Art Deco buildings were swept off their foundations. Mansions on Star Island were flooded up to their slice-glass doorknobs. A seventeen-mile stretch of Highway A1A that ran along the famous beaches up to Fort Lauderdale disappeared into the Atlantic. The storm knocked out the wastewater-treatment plant on Virginia Key, forcing the city to dump hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into Biscayne Bay. Even whether we ban coal, and gas,and oil tomorrow, were not going to be able to turn down the earth’s thermostat immediately Related: Arctic permafrost thawing faster than ever, and US climate study finds Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com