Austin Horne
1. Why do you think it’s important to tackle sea level rise issues in your community?
As an island community in south Florida with a tropical climate, Key Biscayne is particularly vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise. Flooding already occurs during king tides, and is likely to get worse. Working on methods to combat these flooding episodes and protecting the structures and shorelines on the island are of paramount importance if the community is to persist for many years to come.
2. How did you become involved in efforts to combat climate change?
The Key Biscayne Community Foundation (KBCF) works very closely with the Village of Key Biscayne on numerous projects which affect the entire community. KBCF started the Citizen Science Project, the goal of which is to help citizens of the community to learn and care about the local environment, and to create awareness of various environmental issues that affect both the local and global communities. With the advance of climate change and its visible effects happening all over Florida, along with the misinformation that has become pervasive in the country regarding climate change, the Citizen Science Project endeavored to educate the local community while also working with the Village to come up with ideas for fighting the rising seas and flooding that the Key has already begun to experience. These effects were already more prevalent in nearby areas like Miami Beach, and seeing their struggle to get ahead of the floods pushed Key Biscayne to try to act immediately, before the Key experienced the same level of problems.
at its residents are aware of and understand the growing threats faced from climate change.
3. What do you see as the primary impacts on your community from climate change?
Sea level rise is the largest climate change-related issue affecting Key Biscayne, and much of Florida. There have already been flooding instances during king tides that are much worse than in years past. As mentioned earlier, Miami Beach has some of the worst flooding during king tides. Key Biscayne is definitely affected, though to a lesser degree, but these instances have shown the community the dangers of sea level rise and the importance of mitigating the effects before they become a much larger problem as they are bound to do.
On a side note, one of the goals of the education program of the Citizen Science Project is to also spread awareness and knowledge of the connectivity of many of these issues. For example, most people are aware that melting ice caps are contributing to rising seas. However, many people to not know or understand that rising temperatures also play a role – not just in melting ice, but causing water to expand. Expanding water from higher temperatures is not something that people necessarily understand or realize intuitively. Continuing to educate the public while also working on solutions (however temporary) is a key part of protecting Key Biscayne from the effects of climate change.
4. What effective ways have you found to engage the public with this issue?
As mentioned earlier, we’ve had townhall meetings to reach the community at large. We’ve continued with the Citizen Science Project’s education campaign, which includes lectures, environmental documentaries, and environmental activities. We also reach out to schools and work with many children on numerous projects in order to reach them at a younger age and increase awareness and understanding.
The island is definitely already experiencing significant changes. Most of the community, 80-90%, agrees that sea level rise in particular is a problem and needs to be addressed – probably because many of them have seen or experienced flooding first hand. There is a little more discrepancy as far as how long some people think they have before they really need to get worried. We have had two townhall meetings with the community to explain the effects of sea level rise and possible solutions or mitigation. While most people were receptive, there were also people who did not like some of the solutions for aesthetic reasons, such as changes to their yard or driveway. Many people find it more difficult to worry about something that may affect them more significantly in 20 or 30 years. This shows a basic lack of understanding of the gravity and seriousness of the situation, and why forethought is important, which we hope to rectify with a continuing education campaign.
There were a very small number of people who do not believe that climate change is a real issue, however their voices were a tiny percentage of the overwhelming majority who were interested, engaged, and determined to contribute to the discussion with the Foundation and the Village.
5. Do you have any helpful resources that guide you in your efforts to combat climate change?
We hired the consulting firm Coastal Risk Consulting to aid in measuring the affects of sea level rise, create maps to show to the public and predict outcomes based on the predicted sea level rise over time and different mitigation ideas for the future. I also have a background in environmental science which I use to decide which course to take while working on our education campaign. We partner with several other local organizations that are involved with various environmental activities (e.g. Miami WaterKeeper, Dream in Green, Biscayne Nature
Center, etc) and sponsor various outreach activities through them also. We also tailor our approach based on community concerns and questions we receive from the public.
6. In an ideal world, what resources would you need to ensure the sustainability of your community?
One of the most obvious resources is funding to make all the changes we need to make. Raising roads and yards, adding back flow preventers, and the other solutions we’ve come up with are very expensive, and must be done over a long period of time both to spread out the cost and reduce the inconvenience it is likely to cause. More educational resources to reach more of the public would also be useful. The best way to protect a place like Key Biscayne is to make sure that its residents are aware of and understand the growing threats faced from climate change.
This being said, however, there is really no solution that will last in a place like this, unless climate change halts in its tracks. All of our physical solutions are temporary, none will last more than a few decades into the future, so it is difficult to imagine if there are any resources that would be needed to ensure sustainability on a longer scale than that.
7. Which people/companies/organizations have stood out in their efforts to combat climate change?
The greater Miami-Dade area is part of the 100 Resilient Cities program. Miami-Dade has a sustainability officer who works very hard to educate the greater public of south Florida and increase awareness overall. The local chapter of The Nature Conservancy has also done some very interesting work in the Caribbean to help less developed countries combat the issues they face from climate change. Their work is on a very different plane as they are dealing with countries that do not have the financial means that the U.S. has, but there may be some interesting lessons to be learned from their work.
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The Key Biscayne Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization located in Key Biscayne, Florida, whose mission is to enable, facilitate, and empower residents to make a positive difference in the local, greater, and global community through programs, grant making, fiscal scholarship, and community leadership. For more information, see http://www.keybiscaynecommunityfoundation.org/