Are you ready for bad news? If you own or have a partnership interest in any beachfront property in South Florida, it’s time to sell. The disappearing ice shelves in Antarctica should result in a significantly rising Atlantic Ocean in twenty years or less, and Florida isn’t that far above sea level.

Even if your property is inlands all those septic tanks built before municipal sewage lines could start floating to the surface....maybe even the buried remains of Jackie Gleason, Meyer Lansky and a few other non-celebrities.

Regular floods from high seas and hurricanes already disrupt Florida sewage systems leaving really high coliform counts in the water.

Know what that means?

Yup. You’re swimming in it.

Cruise ships aside, it’s also a pretty good time to book that once-in-a-lifetime trip to Venice, Italy. Multi-billion dollar efforts to save the architectual treasures of San Marco Square are unlikely to succeed.

And lower Manhattan residents, if you thought Hurricane Sandy was a one-off you’ve got another thing coming: make America soggy again!

It’s probably impolite of me to make fun of this. Millions will lose their homes and governments around the world aren’t doing nearly enough to slow climate change or convince people to move away from low-lying properties near vulnerable coastlines.

Migration will grow to much higher levels than we’ve seen in the last few years so the status quo won’t work.

Let’s get on it folks.

( )

Goodell travels around the world visiting places of historic note that are doomed to sink beneath the waves. ( )

Jeff Goodell's book, "The Water Will Come", discusses how rising sea levels are impacting cities and Countries around the world. He describes the increasing frequency of flooding occurring along coastlines in the United States, especially in New Orleans, South Florida, the Chesapeake Bay area, and the New York metropolitan area. But that flooding is hardly unique to the United States. Mr. Goodell has traveled widely, and also discusses the flooding problems being faced in wide ranging locations around the world from Venice, Italy to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean; from regions in western Africa such as Lagos, Nigeria to the Marshall Islands in the Pacific; from Rotterdam, Netherlands to Bangladesh, etc. Mr. Goodell notes that not only are these areas seeing more frequent flooding, but are also especially vulnerable to more severe flooding and costly damage during periods of storm surges. Unfortunately, the prognoses is only getting worse as waters continue to rise.

Also interesting are the projects and approaches these areas are taking to address the issue of rising sea levels. Among these projects are billion-dollar protective gates for areas such as Venice and Lagos, flood walls for New York, and the raising of streets and buildings in South Florida. Numerous coastal cities are finding that cost estimates of mitigation actions are in the range of millions or billions of dollars. And the cost of doing nothing may prove to be even higher. In some areas, such as in several of Pacific Islands and Bangladesh, abandonment of coastal property appears to be inevitable.

Goodell also gave me insights into something I've often wondered about, which is, if sea level rise is inevitable and already occurring, why do government leaders in some of the most impacted areas such as in South Florida or along the Carolina coasts deny the problem exists and prohibit even mentioning the phrase "sea level rise"? The apparent answer is that in places such as Florida, which is primarily dependent on property taxes for revenue, admitting that the problem exists could depress home sales, reduce property values, and limit real estate investments. That would lead to reduced State revenues, preventing the State from being able to afford taking corrective actions. By staying silent, and preventing open discussions of the problems, real estate values can be maintained, allowing the State to still initiate some preventive and corrective actions behind the scenes.

Whether local leaders admit the problem or not, rising sea level rises are already impacting coastal property values, especially along the United States East and Gulf coasts. And it's not just homeowners who are being impacted. Flood insurance allows people suffering losses to simply rebuild. But Federal Flood Insurance Program Claims often outpace premiums, and had debts that topped $30 billion in 2017. And since the program is subsidized by taxpayers, it touches all of us. There is talk of Congress addressing costs of the Program, tying homeowner costs to actual risks, but past attempts to revise the program failed. In 2012, Congress passed changes that would impose premiums that reflected the full risk for homes, only to back down two years later in the face of intense public opposition.​ Recently, the Trump Administration again initiated steps to raise the price tag on flood insurance, and time will tell if it will be enacted. ​

Beyond insurance costs, the costs of barriers, beach restoration, road and building repairs are also borne by the entire community. The result is that taxes go up or services are reduced. And cities must continue to make flood damage repairs, even in known repetitive flood areas. Failing to make repairs to roads, beaches, and seawalls because of high costs and repetitive failures have led to successful lawsuits by affected homeowners, forcing city and county governments to continue to make repairs, no matter how many times they have and will continue to fail. ( )

Disaster porn. Good quick read. Just really talks about how screwed we all are going to be. Oh - yeah - except the morons who care only about themselves and say, "Well I wont be here....." ( )

Mr. Goodell, at the outset, says that if you're a climate denier, this is not the book for you. Its audience is not those who do not accept the notion of climate change. It does not intent to make the case for it; rather, it describes both what is already happening in towns like Miami, Venice, and Tom's River, NJ, and what will begin to happen elsewhere in the coming decades. It also looks at various possible solutions and reactions to the problems.

That being said, if you are a denier, I think this book could be a wake up call. Perhaps you've done some research and you're not convinced of the evidence of climate change. Perhaps you think it may be a problem, but you have more pressing problems facing your family today, this week, and this year. Or perhaps the idea makes you nervous and you don't want to think about it; you don't want it to be true (nobody does). Yet, the seas don't care if you're not convinced, if you have other problems, or if you're uncomfortable.

Read this book, and consider the consequences of inaction. ( )