Are we going to drown in a few decades?

Question

Al Gore says that in a few decades sea level will rise 20 feet due to global warmingand drown coastal areas. I live in Florida and I'm scared that I'm going to drown. I don't think I can raise my house on 20 feet high stilts so what can I do?

Answer 1

You are not going to wake up one morning and find the ocean in your living room.  Sea level increases take years.  Slowly tides get higher, coasts are eroded.  Some high tides will be higher than normal.  All of this will take years and years.  But it will happen.  People who deny this are foolish.  Just because something is happening slowly, doesn't mean it isn't happening.  The geologic record clearly shows that ocean levels have changed repeatedly over the geologic record.  Unless you live near the coast and you get caught in a hurricane storm surge, you are VERY unlikely to drown.  Just avoid walking or driving in flowing water and you will do fine.  Over the decades property values in Florida will begin to fall as ocean water infiltrates fresh water aquifers.  There will be a boom in seawall construction.

Answer 2

It's often said that global warming will raise sea levels, but many say there is no indication it is happeneing the way the models predict.

It won't be fast, at any rate.  You'll have plenty of time to relocate if you must, and I'd imagine there will be compensation or assistance of some sort if you do.

DK

Answer 3

Global warming is a Myth.

Geo

Answer 4

Coastal processes are more complicated then Al Gore would have you believe. Beaches (at least in Florida) are submerged/moved not so much by rising sea levels, but by major storm events.

If you watch films of Hurricane Hugo, you will notice that some of the houses were destroyed and beaches were lost. This also happened during Hurricanes Charlie and Andrew. That is to say, after the storm, what was previously land is now ocean. It wasn't rising sea levels that submerged the houses, it was a storm event. The same thing happens in South Florida every day, only South Florida pays money to continually replace sand on their beaches. They also pay engineers to attempt to engineer devices that will capture sediment and build beaches naturally. If they did not conitnually replace the beaches, most of the hotels in South Beach would be in the ocean already.

If you look at New Orleans, you see an area below sea level. In fact we have engineered New Orleans to keep the water out. Chances are that what happened to New Orleans during Katrina is what will happen to Miami/Tampa in the future. The point is that you won't be drowned in 20 ft of water, and it is irrelevant whether your house in on stilts. Instead, a hurricane will be coming, you will go to a hotel in Orlando, and when you get back there will be a significant flood around your house and your house may or may not be habitable. Then it is up to you and your government as to whether to move the city or leave it there.

In the case of New Orleans, we have decided to leave it there. It is equally unlikely that we will move Miami. The next major storm event will likely produce the same problem, although perhaps with additional funding we will have better engineering in place and the flooding will be better controlled.

In the end we will simply end up spending government resources to engineer solutions to rising sea levels. These solutions will either be local solutions such as the pump systems in New Orleans, they will be the local solution of moving our cities inland, or when these solutions become excessively onerous we will create global solutions such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Hopefully by the time we implement these global solutions we'll have a better understanding of global warming and its sources, such that we can engineer an effective solution, as opposed to the current guesses.

Either way, you won't have to tread water, and you won't have to raise your house. Just get out of the way when a hurricane comes.

Answer 5

Al Gore is a politician with an agenda. Not a scientist.

Rising sea levels will happen, but not 20 ft worth.

Answer 6

It is not correct.But if at all if it happens it will be only a slow process.You can easily save your life.Nothing is more valuable than your life.