Week 8-Global Warming-Natural Cycles (Taylor Mills)

Figure 1. Ocean Drive Miami (Kahn, 2015).

Based on my own fears surrounding global warming and its effects on the Earth that I so love, I decided to time travel to Miami located in South Florida in the year 7010.  Unfortunately, my greatest fears were realized as I found myself on a boat, traveling over what used to be Miami.  Depicted in Figure 1, Ocean Drive Miami sure wasn't what it used to be.  As a matter of fact, most of Florida was underwater.  Only the very top of buildings that had not yet collapsed were left, creating obstacles in my path.  The landscape was incredibly depressing, especially since I know that scientists and researchers continued to publish information regarding the Earth's ill-fated destiny year after year.  However, from the little information I was able to gather from my visit to what was left of Northern Florida, Floridians did attempt to preserve their state and slow down and/or lessen the damage.  In an effort to mitigate the ensuing consequences of increased flooding, a rise in sea level, worse hurricanes, etc., residents began to decrease their CO2 emissions.  Further, communities were redesigned to include seawalls and pumps, pumping stations (Figure 2) began to pop up, and boats were made available in the event that sea level were to rise.  Although, these pumping stations were supposedly very expensive and eventually became economically impossible.

Figure 2. Pumping Stations (Loria, 2018).

Moreover, even though Floridians allegedly took steps to limit their CO2 emissions, it was too late.  Human activities such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels produced lots of CO2 which is a greenhouse gas and caused extra heat to become trapped which, in turn, caused the Earth's temperature to rise (greenhouse effect).  As a result, despite changes made by citizens, our poor decisions had already taken a toll on Earth and committed us to a path of destruction.  Thus, ice sheets began to melt and its effects were irreversible and caused global warming to occur and sea level to rise approximately 400 feet above what it currently is today.  Summarized in Figure 3 below, I am scared for not just Florida, but also the Earth.  I hope that when I return home I'm able to make some sort of impact on our destructive human behaviors in a bid to preserve our Earth for at least a little bit longer.

Figure 3. Sea Level Rise and Global Warming (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2013).