Super long form article on the politics of water, housing, development, farming and immigration in Arizona where the legislature is almost fully captured by MAGA nihilists and where the kinda-hero of the story is a Mormon zealot who believes in the divine inspiration of the Constitution

We’re fucking doomed y’all

  • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    6 months ago

    You hear anything about our medium term chances here in Florida? Is the interior going to be done in by the heat and humidity? I know people always talk about the sea level rising but, most outside observers seem to forget that not everyone here lives in Miami.

    • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
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      6 months ago

      I mean, Florida is essentially a swamp that was drained for real estate purposes

      I’ve seen some pretty dire projections showing like almost half of Florida being underwater in like 40 years

    • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      i grew up and lived in “inland” FL for 25+ years. i left after a particularly bad hurricane season. my area took a hit early on that year, but was otherwise calm and rainy with power outages rarely lasting more than 48 hours for each of the multiple hurricanes that year. i worked for a statewide utility company though, and it was a nightmare. everything was fucked all summer. it took weeks and even months in some places to restore communication. the amount of frenetic scurrying that goes on behind the scenes to keep things rolling smoothly for utility consumers is underestimated by everyone who hasn’t seen it.

      over the last few decades of being several hundred miles north and actually inland behind mountains, some of my friends who stayed use this logic… “oh, well we’re 30 miles inland and at 50’ above sea level. sea level rise isn’t a big deal.” as though being adjacent to catastrophe is some kind of protection from catastrophe.

      the failure of civic infrastructure in a massive metropolitan & densely populated area has knock on effects that cascade outward. displaced people overwhelm social services while they wait for transportation to whatever community is offering relocation assistance. utilities share infrastructure and resources. opportunists move in to feed on desperation. florida is entirely a malarial zone and the big events will be in the warm/rainy season. denge, west nile, zika will all explode when people are sheltering in tent colonies waiting on government assistance that will be late to arrive, if ever, while the truthers throw bricks at the malathion trucks because they think it’s giving everyone nanobots. my point is the disruption of sea level rise will not be contained to low lying areas. if the habitability of everything from Miami up to West Palm becomes dubious, that’s over 6 million people looking for a place to stay, fresh water, and something to eat.

      this is a map of persons filing for FEMA aid as being displaced by Katrina, estimated at 400,000-1.3 million people:

      there are of course other differences between NOLA and Florida, but one of the ones floridians should keep in mind is that all mention of climate change and sea level rise have been vanished by executive order from state agencies that would theoretically be in a position to buffer some of the worst impacts. having worked in public service for over a decade, i can tell you that working inside a state that has a government openly hostile to the established science of your services has an attrition effect on the people who work to provide those services. they burn out faster than normal and they leave to go somewhere they are not shit upon. they go somewhere where trying to help people with honesty won’t cost them their future.

      • carpoftruth [any, any]@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        as though being adjacent to catastrophe is some kind of protection from catastrophe.

        Extremely correct comrade. Like it or not, we live in a very interconnected planet, even if you only look at some parts of it via your phone.

      • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        Thank you for your response. I feel some day I should get out of here before everyone else gets the same idea. Idk, I feel the chaos will be partially acute here when things break down because nobody knows anyone else in their community. We all migrated here within the last 30 years or less.

    • Adkml [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      Yea not everybody lives in Miami some people live literal dozens of feet above it.

      3 feet of sea level rise will flood everything south of fort meyers/ palm beach and then the people in the highlands will be inundated with climate refugees who have spent their entire lives saying climate change isn’t real and we should be able to hunt refugees for sport who will absolutely expect you to roll out the red carpet for them.

    • Bloobish [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      6 months ago

      The first heat bulb event will likely be the beginning of the end for Flrida never mind the rising sea level wiping out profitable coastline housing and infastructure.

      • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        That’s what I had in the back of my head. Last week Kid Rock was rolling through our region and all the local hogs on the forums who wanted to go see him were saying:

        “😆😆😆 What heat wave?! 101 degrees is cool winter day to me. 😆😆😆”

        Maybe the first wet bulb event will happen at one of these country chud jamborees.

      • itappearsthat@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        idk whether florida is that vulnerable to wet bulb events. You’re never that far from the coast (oceans moderate temperatures) and it is truly aggressively flat so there are no physical features to force a heat dome to stay in place for that long.

        • Bloobish [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          6 months ago

          All it takes is rising humidity coupled with a longer hot period like what is currently being seen in certain areas of Mexico, heck even humidity around 50% with temps around the 100s will likely start seeing larger heat stroke events occurring.

      • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        6 months ago

        I’m imagining all the Chuds from upstate New York who came down here for the cheap land trying to flee in the opposite direction to escape the temperatures, only to find that once again, I beat them back home by a couple of decades.

    • FloridaBoi [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      6 months ago

      No idea but it seems trends of heat and flooding will probably continue. Medium term might see more movement away from coastal areas into the center and the north. Not sure how long this state can exist as a playground and tax haven for the wealthy when nothing is being with the infrastructure.