Planners in Southeast Fla. Try to Awaken Their State to Sea-Level Rise

Dean Sherwin frowned. He had heard a speaker at the sea-level rise conference he was attending say that half of southeast Florida would be crippled by 2030.

Sherwin stuck up his hand and said that she should correct her choice of language.  Some roads would have to be rebuilt and some people would have to retreat from the coast.  Half of South Florida's flood control infrastructure would be overwhelmed if the Atlantic Ocean rises by a projected 6 inches above 2010 levels.  But half of South Florida will not be "crippled," he said.

The schoolroom chilled as attendees looked at him as though he were a climate denier.

But Sherwin is not a climate skeptic.  He is a retired green builder with solid credentials -- "I was trained by Al Gore!" he later exclaimed, referring to the former vice president's Climate Reality Project.  Sherwin just thinks that when it comes to climate change, people should avoid using such words as "crippled."

"I think we should be careful; it is important not to be emotional like that," he said later in an interview.

Planners in Southeast Fla. Try to Awaken Their State to Sea-Level Rise