Rising tide

Global warming = We're fucked, maybe?

A much-debated U.N. report on climate change to be released today raises the specter of rising sea levels and hurricanes that could eventually swamp much of South Florida.

One official this week even suggested the Bahamas could be under water by 2030.

Dozens of scientists and government experts from 113 countries edited the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. It is considered by most in the scientific community to be the comprehensive document on climate change, one that could influence government and industrial policy worldwide.

Specifically, experts are looking at predictions of sea level rise over the next 50 years from 2 feet to 10 feet.

A rise of 10 feet could swamp the state's highly populated coastline and send salt water spilling into the freshwater Everglades, said a leading South Florida-based scientist.

"It's an outlying estimate, but a 10-foot rise is within the realm of possibility," said Stephen P. Leatherman, director of the International Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University. "If that happens, not only do you have rising water to the east, but you have saltwater encroachment in the Everglades. It essentially becomes part of the ocean to the west of us.

"At that point, forget about Everglades restoration ... Most of this area is maybe 10 feet above sea level, so if you're talking about a 10-foot rise, and rising tide on top of that, then it's all over."

It would be inconceivable that construction could easily adapt to such a rise, Leatherman said.

"To preserve places like Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, you'd be building high sea walls like they have in New Orleans, and that wouldn't help during storms," he said.