South Florida Secession To Create The 51st U.S. State: Climate Change A Reason To Split Into Two?


Florida’s secession is the topic of a recently passed resolution in the City of South Miami that favors the of secession of southern Florida counties. The resolution proposes to split Florida into northern and southern states, creating the 51st state of South Florida. But a large part of the disagreement seems to stem from climate change science, global warming and the rise of the oceans.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, Florida is not the only state recently for having a proposed secession go up for vote. Last year North Colorado almost became the 51st state when northern Colorado residents felt ignored and “politically disenfranchised.”

The City of South Miami passed a resolution in favor of Florida being split into half to create the state of South Florida. Mayor Walter Harris proposed the resolution that was passed with a 3-2 vote by the city commission on October 7. Harris seems to have mutual feelings with northern Colorado residents of feeling ignored by the opposing side of the state, which means they need to have South Florida secede from the north.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Harris told the commission that Tallahassee isn’t providing South Florida with proper representation or addressing its concerns when it comes to sea levels rising, which has been largely attributed to climate change and global warming in the past.

“We have to be able to deal directly with this environmental concern and we can’t really get it done in Tallahassee,” Harris said. “I don’t care what people think — it’s not a matter of electing the right people.”

Mayor Phillip Stoddard has said he has long thought it would be best for a South Florida secession and echoed that there is great apathy in Tallahassee regarding the southern part of the state.

“It’s very apparent that the attitude of the northern part of the state is that they would just love to saw the state in half and just let us float off into the Caribbean… They’ve made that abundantly clear every possible opportunity and I would love to give them the opportunity to do that.”

The Resolution of the Mayor and City of South Miami deliberated specifically on those facts, claiming the need that southern states have regarding erosion are not being met despite being in urgent need.

“Presently, in order to address the concerns of South Florida, it is necessary to travel to Tallahassee in North Florida. Often South Florida issues do not receive the support of Tallahassee… The creation of the 51st state, South Florida, is a necessity for the very survival of the entire southern region of the current state of Florida.”

It points out that this is the case despite South Florida generating more than 69 percent of the state’s revenue and containing 67 percent of the state’s population.

The resolution claims the facts show there is big disparity between the geological elevations of the northern and southern part of the state.

“The average elevation of the present state of Florida is approximately 100 feet above sea level. North Florida is approximately 120 feet above sea level while the average elevation of South Florida is less than 50 feet with a very large portion of South Florida averaging less than 15 feet above sea level. Many sections of South Florida are 5 feet or less above sea level, including Monroe County and the Gold Coast, consisting of Palm Beach County, Broward County and Miami-Dade County. This area also includes the Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Biscayne National Park and the Turkey Point nuclear reactors. These reactors are 42 years old and less than 5 feet above sea level with in excess of 2.5 million pounds of nuclear waste buried on the grounds of the nuclear plant.”

Many counties of South Florida are five feet or less above sea level, including major national parks and a nuclear reactor. Assuming global warming and the ocean levels rising are linked, it is estimated that there will be a three to six foot sea level rise in the next 100 years. If that is the case, then within the next generation much of south Florida may well disappear into the ocean. Never mind the disappearance of home cities, it’s claimed by South Florida politicians the 2.5 million pounds of nuclear waste contained within reactors will become submerged underwater and become a terrible environmental disaster.

There are a few constitutional hurdles before South Florida may secede to become it’s own state, First Coast News reports. Most importantly is each county must approve it first. Second, Congress would have to approve the breakup of the state.

Would you want a 51st state based upon a South Florida secession? Or, as the mayor puts it, would you want to see the southern part of Florida slip out into the middle of the ocean?

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