South Florida has been put forward as a key priority of the US climate change agenda as it will experience considerable catastrophe if sea levels will rise.

Geologist Peter Harlem of Florida International University has generated a series of maps that show what is likely to occur if sea levels continue to increase.

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The maps indicate that, by the time sea levels have increased by four feet, many parts of Miami Beach, Virginia Key, Key Biscayne, and all other neighboring areas of prime real estate will have drowned.

With sea levels of six feet, the Florida Keys and the waterfront of Miami will be gone. The most active cruise ship port in the world will also disappear.

According to Professor Ben Kirtman, atmosphere expert at the University of Miami, climate change should not be deemed as a future hazard but as an alarming threat that has present and future consequences.

In Miami, there has been a substantial increase in population as well as in house prices and construction projects.

With the annual surge of high tides in spring and autumn, the sea rushes forward and up the Florida coast, hitting Miami Beach's west area.

Winds are typically raised to hurricane levels during autumn; tidal surges smack into the west coast of Miami Beach and brush through the storm drains.

The flow of water that is often brought on from the streets is reversed. Flooding is then experienced by Alton Road, the first accessible main road on Miami Beach's west side, which further surges and pours across the remaining parts of the island.

As such, Alton Road's latest construction work has allocated US$400 million to put a stop to these catastrophic floods through the improvement of drains and sewages in Miami Beach.

All in all, approximately US$1.5 billion is being invested into such projects designed to halt the rising waters.

At the University of Miami, geology professor Harold Wanless has declared that a rise in sea levels of about six to 10 feet is highly possible at the end of this century and Miami will drown.

The city's vulnerability to climate change has been attributed to its geology. The limestone on which the city is built has been soaking up the rising water which then fills up Miami's foundations and pushes up through its pipes and drains.

Despite the troubling scenario, the city's response has been found to be nowhere near proactive.

Senior politicians in Florida, such as former governor Jeb Bush, present governor Rick Scott, and Senator Marco Rubio, have expressed their lack of concern toward climate change.

Possibly running for the 2016 presidential elections, Rubio believes that human activity is not the main cause of these changes relating to the climate.

On the other hand, he insists that laws for combating climate change are likely to destroy the U.S. economy.

Aside from south Florida, other major locations have also been declared as areas at risk, including New Orleans, London, Amsterdam, Bangladesh, and Maldives. 

TagsMarco Rubio, Rick Scott, Jeb Bush