Experts see climate change peril for South Florida's black and Hispanic communities

Sun Sentinel ^ | May 10, 2017 | by Anthony Man

[Oldeconomybuyer]

African-American, Caribbean-American and Hispanic communities are typically located miles from South Florida beaches where climate change is most visible — but people who live in those areas are profoundly vulnerable to the effects, political leaders and climate science experts said Wednesday.

And, panelists at a Fort Lauderdale conference said, there’s a growing awareness in minority communities of the implications of climate change.

The environmental movement was long seen as the province of “white tree huggers,” said Caroline Lewis, director of the CLEO Institute.

But that is changing, said Lewis, who is Caribbean-American. “Here in southeast Florida, it is almost flipping,” she said. “It’s bubbling up tremendously.”

Still, she said, it’s not always easy to convince people to pay attention to climate change.

“When people are worrying about paying their bills, the last thing they want to hear about is sea level rise,” she said. “You have to care because every vulnerability you now face is going to be increased exponentially by climate change.”

Angela Rye, the moderator, said people can’t let the headlines of the day overwhelm important issues like climate. “We have to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have to be able to have conversations about our environment, about climate change, about clean drinking water – and conversations about the Trump administration at the same time,” she said.

[DeFault User]

Also at the meeting was the US Congressman from the 2nd district (Florida), Alcee Hastings.

In 1988, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives took up the case, and Hastings was impeached for bribery and perjury by a vote of 413-3. He was then convicted in 1989 by the United States Senate becoming the sixth federal judge in the history of the United States to be removed from office by the Senate.

Of course that didn't stop south Florida voters from electing him to the House of Representatives in 1993. Now he is drawn to the Climate Change money like a fly to manure.

[bus man]

I used to live a couple of blocks east of that narrow ridge, and went to school on the other side of it. There it was, the one and only hill in all of South Florida. (I didn’t know that it extended so far north and south; I thought it was localized in southern Palm Beach County.)

I suppose that all the white people in the region must live on that ridge, and all the black and Hispanic and “Caribbean-American” people must live everywhere else. So when the seas rise, South Florida will be nothing more than a long, extremely narrow peninsula filled with nothing but white people.

[Mears]

What a surprise that article was——the rich have more than the poor.

As someone who grew up poor this really comes as a shock to me./s

.

[GOYAKLA]

Flagler built his RR on that ridge. If you follow the FEC RR tracks you’ll know where it is. Note places were , like Jensen Beach there is a very noticeable elevation above, the surrounding terrain.
******
;^} Wait for it: The seas wold not be rising if,, We the People, were allowed to store more water in our toilets and use more for bathing! Bad-da bing

[Oatka]

The rain falleth on the just and unjust. Same with rising/falling sea levels.

[Keyhopper]

These a holes can’t even predict tomorrow’s weather. Why do they keep building of the coast then?

[Keyhopper]

Don’t forget the old people

[The Toll]

Terrible. Relocate them to the Congo and Peru immediately!