My wife and I just drove up from Fort Myers to Savanna Georgia for a U.S. Sailing conference at the DeSoto. Great place and such a beautiful setting. It’s a 7 hour drive but because the Interstate was shut down by Ocala because of an accident it took us an extra hour. Because having to detour off Interstate 75 and come up through Florida we got to see a side of Florida that isn’t what the normal tourist sees. As we drove along U.S. 301 we notice a lot of businesses that were closed and all boarded up. It is easy to see where U.S 301 was at one time the major road through the area similar to U.S 231 in Georgia. The interstates changed all that but you do get a sense of history when driving what now are the “back roads”. These roads were at one time the roads that kept the nation tied together. The old U.S. Highway system connecting towns and states together. I saw areas that were at one time very prosperous are now what I would call run down and depressed. I kinda think of them as America’s forgotten past with no plan for its recovery. I don’t know if that is the way that it is suppose to be but that is the way it is. 

As we were driving on Interstate 95 in Georgia I noticed how close we were to the ocean. I saw these beautiful flat rivers meandering through these grasslands and it was a sight that I had never seen before. It had its own unique beauty that just added to the pictures in my mind. Some of it kinda reminded me of the landscape from the movie “WHERE THE CRAWDADS SINGS”. While I was looking at this beautiful and unique landscape I began to think how devastating it would be if a Hurricane, like Ian, were to hit the area. Depending on who you are talking to Ft. Myers Beach had a storm surge up to 16 feet. This area in Georgia I am sure is just a few feet above sea level so a 16 foot storm surge, I would think, would just devastate the entire area. I am pretty sure that a storm surge like that would do to an area like Tybee Island causing it to be completely under water as was all of Ft. Myers Beach and most of Sanibel Island during Ian. I could imagine the storm surge wreaking havoc on the low lying areas of Savanna proper just like Downtown Ft. Myers. 

Our seas are rising and in the end it is going to be a losing battle to save many of nature’s treasures that lie along our coast. What I think most people understand that much of our rising sea problem is because of the expansion of the water due to the rising temperature of the water itself. That expansion could actually account for 42 percent of the rising sea levels. A buoy between Manatee Bay and Key Largo registered triple-digit temperatures over a three hour period last summer. The same thing that is threatening our Polar Bear population is threatening our coasts. Water that is too warm to freeze means less ice packs for the bears to hunt on and that warmer water expands and takes up more room which results in our rising seas. This really isn’t rocket science, it is mostly just common sense science. You throw the melting of the poles and the glaciers on top of the expansion you have a real disaster in the making that man will not be able to stop. At times like this I always think of the first laws that God created. No not those law that were carved on a tablet but the laws that were created before man ever walked the Earth. Those are the laws of Physics. For every action there is an opposite reaction. We pump all these gases into the air there has to be some type of reaction. The reaction cannot be nothing. It has to be something. 

What makes me think about all of the Climate Change stuff right now is a conversation that I was having with a couple of guys after Cardiac Rehab. We have been experiencing a little cooler than normal Winter in South Florida where we live. Me, I find it refreshing considering the blistering hot summer that we had but people memories are short. One of the guys said just look outside and tell me that we have climate change.  Like walking outside should determine if Climate Change is real. Then another guy pipes up our climate in always changing, insinuating that all this alarm is for nothing. What I really found interesting is one of the guys had lost his home to Hurricane Ian on Ft. Myers Beach but still did not believe that Climate Change contributed to the 16 foot storm surge that helped destroy his house. Now that is a true follower of the Politicians that deny Climate Change. I always say, to some people, it is easier to believe the liars than it is to look for the truth. The data is out there. Between 1901 and 2013 the sea level rose on average 1-2 mm per year. Between 2013 and 2022 the sea levels rose on an average of 4.62 mm per year, more than double. Thermal expansion accounts for 42% of the sea level rise. Melting temperate glaciers accounts for 21%, with Greenland accounting for 15% AND Antartica 8%. Sea levels lag behind the changes in the Earth’s temperature meaning it is going to get worse. 

Can we do something about it? Yes, but it will take honest dialog and cooperation between the political parties and other nations to accomplish anything. One thing we have to do is get all the money out of Washington that bribes too many politicians that line their pockets. We all know who they are and if we want to solve the problems of Climate Change we need to get these politicians out of Washington and get problem solvers there in their place. We need to start thinking that the future of our future generations is important. Trump at one time stated that the rising waters was a good thing because it would mean more water front property. I think that he is wrong. The losses of such areas as Tybee Island or Sanibel can never be recovered. The lives that will be destroyed from our rising seas can never be recovered. I have seen people lose everything to Mother Nature and are now living in a FEMA trailer. Future generations will know who to blame because in today’s digital age everything will be remembered including all the facts that many just ignore. 

Any sailor that is worth their weight in salt knows the power of water and weather. You can do battle against the wind and the waves but you can never calm them. You fight to survive what they bring and to come out  against them not victorious but with respect. Men that work to understand the power will survive. Those that deny that power in the end will not. Rising seas will be relentless, they won’t be stopped.