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Hey brother. Did you know that every house in Miami is
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going to be an oceanfront property soon because they're like,
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they're on the beach.
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Like, what do you mean?
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Well, it's from the effect of global warming out there.
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So today we have floodlight news reporter and Miami resident Mario Ariza
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to explain Miami's state of unreality when it comes to climate change
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Mario, how's it going?
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Jenny. Hi, Alejandro.
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Nice. Thanks for having me on.
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So, Jenny's telling me that Miami might be completely all oceanfront
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properties. Can you break down what's happening over there and what's
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going on with the climate change and flooding in Miami?
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I'll start by making it really personal,
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right? I moved to Miami in 1993 from the Dominican Republic
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And when I came here,
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the ocean was six inches lower than it is today,
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That means in, in my lifetime here in Miami,
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the ocean has risen six inches and it is expected
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to keep rising and to accelerate in its rate of rise to
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the point where by the time I'm set to retire,
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There may be an extra 3 to 4 ft of water
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sloshing around in the streets of Miami.
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And by the end of the century,
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Miami is expected to see possibly even 6 ft of sea level
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rise. That's bad for a place like Miami because Miami's geology
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is a little special,
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right? Not only do we have our special Cafecito here,
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but we have a special kind of limestone here.
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the water comes up from below us.
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Now we've got the water coming up from the ocean.
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We've got the water coming up from below us right from the
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ground. We've also got the water coming down from the sky
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We've got coming from all sides and it's coming in different
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ways now because of a phenomenon known as anthropogenic climate change.
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That's a big boy words for basically humans polluting the atmosphere
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and trapping more heat or making the rain more intense or making
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the ocean higher and for a place like Miami.
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Well, that means it's not going to be a lot of
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and what are local policymakers doing or not doing to combat the
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effects of global warming?
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That's a great question.
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Listen, the people in charge have put a lot of money
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into trying to keep things dry here in Miami.
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We've built some pumps,
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we've raised some roads,
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we've installed these valves in the storm water system that the water
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won't come in, it just goes out and that's buying us
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of a lot of money and,
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and this sort of adaptation is going on.
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And people are adapting to it.
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But one of the main issues is that the driver of this
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change in the climate of this rise in sea levels is carbon
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emissions. Right. Every time you turn your car on,
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that's CO2 into the atmosphere though,
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you're not the one doing most of it.
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Most of it is coming from power plants and from
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our aggregate transportation system,
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burning fossil fuels. And what isn't happening is that we're not
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replacing fossil fuels with other forms of energy that don't make the
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planet warmer. And we hear that some lawmakers could,
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you know, propose building a sea wall flooding.
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Do you think that would even be a good solution or a
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viable one? If I understand you correctly,
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you may be talking about the multi billion dollar proposal by the
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US Army Corps of Engineers to establish a wall partially in the
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sea, partially on land to save Miami from storm surge.
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Because one of the big issues here is that when a storm
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if a big hurricane hit a wall of water could come into
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the belly of the city,
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just kind of tear it out.
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That's a plan that would make one of the shocks,
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the big hurricane, not as bad,
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but it would do nothing to fix the stressors,
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right? The rain bombs and the sunny day flooding.
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Well, thank you so much for joining us,
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Mara. We really appreciate it.
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And where can people find you?
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Where can people follow you?
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Yeah, great question.
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So you can follow me on Twitter at Mario Ariza Baez A
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Rizabaez. You can go to floodlight dot org.
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That's floodlight.org and follow our journalism there.
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And we are a nonprofit.
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So if you want to support us,
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we are always asking for support.
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I spend my days investigating energy companies that are trying to stop
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the transition to clean energy.
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So if you're interested in learning more about that,
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please do check out floodlight.org.
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Appreciate your time. Thank you so much folks for the work
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that you do. Have a good one.
Series