Dearth Day: How Even Environmentalists Are Accepting The Inevitable

When sorrow draws near,

The gardens of the soul will lie desolate,

Wilting; joy and song will die.

Dark is life, dark is death.

 

Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth)

— Gustav Mahler

It was Earth Day this week.

Companies peddling environmentally sound products flooded in-boxes with promos for Earth Day sales. And environmental organizations did the same, extending eager hands for donations.

I don’t think the activists who launched Earth Day, fresh off vigorous demonstrations against the Viet Nam war, would be too enamored of the event’s activities in the Keys. There was a native plant day in the Upper Keys. A 5K run/walk in Key West a couple of weeks ago marked the event. And so did a fair at Bahia Honda, also two weeks ago.

What there wouldn’t have been is a massive demonstration to demand reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent right now. Today.

A history of buzzwords

Back when Earth Day began the watchword was ecology.

As awareness about global warming became more widespread, sloganeering used the word green instead of ecology. Even Marathon had a Green Team. But, as most things go, corporate America co-opted “green” and applied that label to just about everything that wasn’t blatantly poisonous.

Seeing that, the emphasis shifted from green to sustainability. Recognizing the change, Key West appointed a sustainability coordinator. Monroe County has done the same with its sustainability program manager. Trouble is, in an area that imports just about everything – food, power, gasoline, and water – it’s nigh on impossible to be sustainable. And even when there is an opportunity to dial up sustainability by returning yard waste materials to the earth via mulching and composting, the county tilts toward shipping it out.

But don’t fear. We have a new buzz word: adaptation.

Now that the country, the state, the cities, and the county have done virtually nothing to head off climate change and the subsequent sea level rise and now that scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have determined that a 2 centigrade rise in global temperatures is a given, the state and the county say we must think about adapting to a new reality.

That means sea level rise. According to this map 100 percent of the populace of the Keys will be vulnerable to a 5-foot surge or sea level rise.

For Monroe County and all other coastal regions, adaptation means planning now for the damage that sea level rise will cause in low lying areas. What will adaptation mean here in the Florida Keys? Raising the highways, hardening utilities, building dikes and levees, improving waste water systems and even changing our minds about letting all those people with what were formerly known as illegal downstairs enclosures keep their properties intact. The Keys will have to build up.

Where is the money going to come from for all this? The county can’t even extract money from the state to build a sewer system that was mandated nearly 40 years ago. Newer sewer systems, if the Keys are going to adapt, will need to be constructed to ensure they won’t be damaged by encroaching sea water.

In other words, adaptation means nothing. Nothing at all. The current Climate Change Advisory Committee will be reviewing a document put out by the Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) that is full of words such as “optional” and “may” and even “holistic planning,” whatever that is. The plan is to study the threat of sea level rise and develop best practices and conduct pilot studies. The first pilot will be in Ft. Lauderdale, a community rewarded by the state for taking some action on the consequences of climate change right now.

In the words of the Adaptation Action Areas plan that DEO issued,

“The City of Ft. Lauderdale, in cooperation with Broward County, will serve as a pilot to test the adaptation options. The results of this process will be compiled into a guidance document to assist Florida communities that choose to address Adaptation Action Areas in their local comprehensive plan.”

And,

“The main difference between the supplemental project and the DEO’s 5-year initiative is that the pilots under the 5-year strategy will represent an average community in Florida and will take a holistic approach to adaptation planning. The pilot under this application will be an advanced community on the forefront of adaptation planning in the state, ready to take on highly targeted tasks related to how adaptation action areas will be addressed in the local comprehensive plan.”

That average community is not Monroe County even though the Keys are the most threatened area in all of Florida. The county’s inaction results in Broward being chosen. The options that the state develops will be tested through a pilot project that will ultimately result in a proposed amendment to the local comprehensive plan that addresses sea level rise adaptation. Given how long it takes to change the county’s comprehensive plan, with committees meeting and public input provided and more committees meeting with more public announcements and forums before actually delivering anything to the Board of County Commissioners, it would seem wise to start looking at property in Tennessee now.

Too little, too late

How long? According to the Citizen in Tuesday’s paper,

“Since 2009, the county has been working with the private planning firm Keith and Schnars to update and rewrite its comprehensive land-use plan. County officials expect to complete the process by the end of the year.

The comp plan establishes the overarching policies for development in the county. It takes into account climate change and sea-level rise, the total carrying capacity of the Keys, protection of endangered species, and safe evacuation of the Keys prior to a hurricane.”

So it has taken 5 years to complete changes in the current comp plan. Given that DEO will conduct its pilot for five years and then provide Monroe with what has been learned it appears, it could be ten years before the county undertakes any meaningful work toward this new buzzword, adaptation.

Maybe the Keys should wait for the next environmental fad: climate refugees.

This also means that people can now forget reducing their greenhouse gas impact. Not many bothered anyway. Get out your kayak and tie it to your house. Build a dock on your currently dry lot. Think about pontoons and a propeller for your car. Start building a dike around your house.

Better yet, move. Like to the mountains of Tennessee.

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Michael Welber  has lived in Marathon for 16 years, and has long experience as a writer and media producer. Most recently he helped establish and was the first editor of Keys Sunday, a publication of the Keynoter. He has also been active in environmental issues in the Keys, forming and chairing the City of Marathon Green Team and creating and editing GLEE’s monthly newsletter.