EVERGLADES ROLLING IN
Alligators in my driveway, getting underneath my skin E B7
I got snakes in the closet every time the tide comes in B7 E Fdim B7
There’s a python in my backyard driving me to drink E B7
25-pound catfish living in the kitchen sink. You know, B7 G#7 C#m E
I’d move out tomorrow, A A#dim
But every time I try E C#7
Put it on the market, F#7
but nobody wants to buy B7 B7+5
Everglades are rolling in E B7 E (E-D-A-Ab-E -Esus4)
Lotta people, try an’ tell me, nothing there to fear
Just because the bayou’s getting higher every year.
But you can’t talk about the water, A A#dim
Governor’s made it clear E C#7
You can’t talk about tomorrow, F#7
It’s a dirty word down here. B7 B7+
Everglades are rolling in C#m B7 E
All those hotels in Miami, better build ‘em while you can
Right up to the minute when the science hits the fan
It’s a dirty little secret, all over town
If that water’s coming up, the real estate’s going down
Mosquitoes have a field day, fly anywhere they please
Introduce your neighbor to tropical disease, but I
Don’t want no trouble for the economy
So let’s just keep it ’tween you and me
Everglades are rolling in C#m B7 C#m A7 A#dim
Everglades are rolling in C#m B7 E ——
©Doug Hendren, 2018
What’s it about? Florida, is the state most endangered by climate change, but under Governor Rick Scott (2011-2018) terms like “climate change,” “global warming” and “sea level rise” were banned from all governmental communications. As of 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis has likewise done nothing to address greenhouse gas emissions, the root cause of climate change. Like Texas, a climate-denying administration is not serving the state’s citizens well in the face of extreme weather rising seas. At a time when Miami is now experiencing “sunny day flooding,” there is no plan in place for facing what is already here. New hotels are still going up, even though the tide will be lapping at their foundations before a 30-year mortgage is paid off. Meanwhile, officials recognize that Florida’s infrastructure is already unable to keep up with rising seas and more powerful storms. Florida has become a precarious paradise.
Even harder to believe, Florida Power & Light, the main electrical utility in the state, recently tried to block the spread of solar power, claiming it would not work in Florida due to lack of sunshine. Fortunately, the citizens won.
Much of residential Florida was reclaimed from swampland within the past century, and it will be returning in a matter of decades. Coastal cities do not need to actually fall down to be abandoned. All that is needed is for the basic conditions of public sanitation to be overwhelmed to often to get them back to normal. For example, if clean water supplies are contaminated with sewage once or twice per month, it is enough to set the stage for epidemics of infectious disease, not to mention the spread of tropical diseases, mostly mosquito-borne, which has already begun to happen.
As these developments begin to be apparent, people will start moving out, at first trying to salvage their investments by selling to “greater fools,” but the tax base will begin to shrink, leaving fewer and fewer people willing to pay for any kind of temporary barricades against rising seas.
All the insurance companies in the world do not have enough reserves to replace the city of Miami. The economic blow represented by loss of American coastal cities is incalculable. The idea that we cannot afford to face this oncoming train is astonishing. Wake up! Tell your neighbor!
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October 2024: Zillow will now show climate risk data on home listings.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09052023/climate-change-florida-everglades-restoration-plan/
Forecasting mosquitoes’ global spread. Boston Children’s Hospital
https://www.wsj.com/articles/climate-fears-reshape-miamis-housing-market-1524225600
http://www.record-eagle.com/opinion/forum-climate-change-
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-south-florida-ends-1783803198
https://grist.org/briefly/8-kids-from-florida-are-suing-their-state-over-climate-change/
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/21/611919853/foreign-investors-shrug-off-miamis-rising-sea-levels
