Media roundup: Residents resist raised roads; ‘retreat’ a dirty word; solar geoengineering

Miami Beach wants higher roads and pumps to fight sea rise. Some residents say no way

Alex Harris

Miami Herald

Miami Beach won’t be elevating new roads anytime soon, after fierce opposition from residents who alternatively insisted their neighborhood didn’t flood and therefore didn’t need higher streets, or who worried higher streets would send floodwater into their homes.

Neighbors in the city’s latest stop on its internationally lauded $500 million plan to pump, pipe and elevate itself away from rising seas fought back from what they say is an unnecessary project — one they say will ruin their property values.

“We will not let Upper North Bay Road become another failed experiment,” said Jane Jacobs, a resident of the tiny bayside patch of island the city had planned to spend $24 million on upgrading pipes for drinking, sewage and stormwater, as well as elevating the road.

Ted Deutch, Carlos Curbelo-led climate caucus urges budget help

Florida Politics

The bipartisan congressional Climate Solutions Caucus, led by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch and Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, is urging House budget leaders to remove provisions from 2019 budget proposals that would hamper climate change research and initiatives.

The pair of Florida lawmakers, Deutch from Boca Raton and Curbelo from Kendall, sent a letter to the chair and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee asking they “oppose and remove any policy provisions or riders from the Fiscal Year 2019 appropriations bills that undermine efforts to confront climate change.”

America’s Last-Ditch Climate Strategy of Retreat Isn’t Going So Well

Christopher Flavelle, Bloomberg

Corrine Spry had no way of knowing, on the day Tropical Storm Leeruined her house seven years ago, that she was about to become part of a radical experiment to transform how the U.S. protects itself against climate change. All she knew was that it had been raining for days, so she’d better get some cash.

Spry set out in her car through Sidney, N.Y., a fading village of roughly 4,000 along the Susquehanna River, swollen from the storm and rising fast. On the way home from the bank, she saw firefighters huddled in front of their station. They’d already taken out Sidney’s rescue boat. Spry, who’d lived down the street for 30 years, knew most by name. She pulled over to ask how much time she had. Get your stuff, the firefighters told her, and get out now.

A small woman who moves and speaks in quick bursts, Spry rushed home and called in some favors. Pickup trucks soon arrived. She and her husband, Lynn, moved what they could and drove to higher ground. Six feet of water filled her neighborhood, swallowing front porches and flowing into living rooms.

More than 400 homes and businesses ended up underwater in Sidney, affecting more than 2,000 people.

Explainer: Six ideas to limit global warming with solar geoengineering

Daisy Dunne

CarbonBrief

Scientists agree that cutting global greenhouse emissions as soon as possible will be key to tackling global warming. But, with global emissions still on the rise, some researchers are now calling for more research into measures that could be taken alongside emissions cuts, including – controversially – the use of “solar geoengineering” technologies.

Solar geoengineering is a term used to describe a group of hypothetical technologies that could, in theory, counteract temperature rise by reflecting more sunlight away from the Earth’s surface.

From sending a giant mirror into space to spraying aerosols in the stratosphere, the range of proposed techniques all come with unique technical, ethical and political challenges.

Carbon Brief spoke to the scientists who are pioneering research into these techniques to find out more about their potential uses, shortfalls and overall feasibility.

‘Impossible to Ignore’: Why Alaska Is Crafting a Plan to Fight Climate Change

 May 15, 2018

WASHINGTON — In the Trump era, it has mainly been blue states that have taken the lead on climate change policy, with liberal strongholds like California and New York setting ambitious goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Now, at least one deep-red state could soon join them: Alaska, a major oil and gas producer, is crafting its own plan to address climate change. Ideas under discussion include cuts in state emissions by 2025 and a tax on companies that emit carbon dioxide.

While many conservative-leaning states have resisted aggressive climate policies, Alaska is already seeing the dramatic effects of global warming firsthand, making the issue difficult for local politicians to avoid. The solid permafrost that sits beneath many roads, buildings and pipelines is starting to thaw, destabilizing the infrastructure above. At least 31 coastal towns and cities may need to relocate, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, as protective sea ice vanishes and fierce waves erode Alaska’s shores.

“The Invading Sea” is a collaboration of four South Florida media organizations — the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and WLRN Public Media.