Clearwater Asking the Age-Old Question is Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise Real?

I suspect that most of these people are descendants of those who made  fun of Noah while he was building the Ark, and we all know how that turned out.

Tampa Bay, Fl 
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD  
Author: In Search of Robin, So You Want to Blog.

You would think by now that we can all pretty much agree that Climate Change, and Sea-level rise are reasonable concerns. The notable exception to that statement is slowly shrinking number of politicians who just can’t seem to get their head’s around the fact the science about sea-level rise and climate change is real.

All of this leads me to an article in the Tampa Bay Times by Kirby Wilson and Tracey McMananus, Clearwater’s Rising Risk.

That leads me to two of Clearwater’s more noticeable Climate Change deniers City Council members Bob Cunduiff and Bud Elias. There are some notable quotes Wilson/McMananus article from both.

As there is an election in the offing in Clearwater, all candidates are postulating the normal solutions such as elimination of fossil fuels, using electric or natural gas-powered vehicles.

From the article, attorney Bruce Rector, a candidate for Clearwater Seat 2, said, “Whether man is causing it or not is not a question for a member of City Council, adding, It doesn’t matter why. There is pretty good evidence it is changing what are we going to do about it?”

Good point Mr. Rector. If I lived in Clearwater, you would have my vote.

It is time we started to elect some people with more pragmatic views of Climate-Change  impact and stop treating this major threat to our state as a political football.

You can  check out my recent Posts by clicking on Baypost Climate Change.

Here is the real point. If we started today converting all vehicles to eco friendly fuels, shout down all the coal-fired  electrical generation facilities in Florida or all in the US and implemented all of those other half crazy ideas you read about, the likelihood is it would not prevent the impending issue caused by a sea-level rise.

The real question is Bruce Rector’s question: “What are we going to do about it?”

Seawalls, dyke, dams and other physical barriers that the big construction and public works people are likely to propose will simply not work in the long run, think New Orleans. 

So, here is where the political will to deal with this problem becomes the issue.

It is time to stop all coastal developments in those endangered areas defined by sea-level rise projection at least in southern Florida and along the West Coast.

At risk, property must have a mitigation risk tax or fee assigned that is adopted immediately with those funds flowing into the funding for low lying property acquisition.

Laws need to be enacted that absolutely prevent this from becoming a Realtors and attorney's gold mine.

We need to increase the funding being set aside at the state level and begin to set aside funds at the County and local level for buying low lying property and converting it to green space to mitigate property loss and horrific increases in property insurance. And that means a Property mitigation tax on all Floridians to quickly build these funds.

Not much of a political platform to run on.

Time to get the political head out of the sand or it may be drowned when the unexpected tide comes in.

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