Tip of the week # 31

Yet Another Warming Sign

The electric coffee pot was beginning to beep by the time I got around to reaching for Sunday's newspaper. The sound signaled that the pot was finished brewing, so I hurriedly grabbed a cup from the cupboard with one hand and the coffee pot with the other and began to pour my first cup of the day.

That doesn't take long because I drink mine black. Next on the agenda was reading the morning paper and that's when the headline from the front page shouted back at me:

Rising sea level already eating away at Florida's coastline Ecosystems show visible change as global warming appears to speed up a natural process.

I've lived in Florida for most of my life and I realized a long time ago that the state's climate, among many other things, has slowly, but drastically changed from the way I remember it being as a child.

Rain

When my family moved to Pinellas County, Florida in 1954, I can still recall that there were rain showers every summer afternoon around 2PM. It would rain (hard) for about an hour or so and then stop. And I'll never forget my parents constantly complaining that when the rain stopped, it felt like a sauna outside to them. (At that time our family didn't own an air conditioner -- yet!) As a 6-year-old child, it seemed to me those showers were so punctual that if you wanted, you could set your clock by their arrival.

Clouds

Those rains came from huge Cumulonimbus (see- I was paying attention in science class) clouds that regularly developed over Tampa Bay. And those clouds garnered considerable notoriety around the world for more than just their plentiful and punctual penchant for precipitation. They earned a well-deserved reputation as "Mecca" in the sport flying sailplanes. To sailplane pilots, gliding the huge thermal updrafts that developed each afternoon in the clouds high above Tampa Bay, was a pilgrimage that was not to be missed in ones lifetime.

Lightning

And lightning -- Wow, we had lightning -- towering rain clouds produce lightning and the ones over our bay produced enough to also earn our area of the US the additional moniker "Lightning Capitol of the World."

Citrus

And another thing those clouds and that rain did was to create the perfect climate to produce Citrus on a grand scale. I can remember that there were orange groves everywhere. Back then, Pinellas County grew more citrus than anywhere else in the United States. Springtime was an absolute wonder to behold. Those citrus trees produced a bounty of wonder throughout the growing season -- from the beautiful fragrance of their blooms that permeated every corner of the county to the bounty of fresh oranges and grapefruit to the preserved jellies and jams that were sent as Christmas presents to the relatives still living up north.

Healthy Lifestyle

Even now, when I'm thinking about those orange groves, the sides of my mouth begin to hurt. That's because, from the time those oranges, grapefruit, and tangerines were ripe enough to eat, I would grab them right off the tree to eat. Most of the time though, I'd simply poke a hole in the top where the stem used to be with my pocketknife and proceed to squeeze and suck all the juice out. I did this with such regularity each summer that the citric acid from the skin of the fruit would turn my lips and cheeks raw. (come to think of it, I don't remember suffering from many colds back then either)

Just like the Keys

My grandfather was the reason our clan moved to Florida. He moved to Largo in the early 50's, just after WWII ended, and opened up "Andrews Service Center," a Sinclair gas station and full-service garage, in the middle of downtown at 4th Street and West Bay Drive.

Since most of my family is originally from Michigan, no one should be surprised that almost all the adult males grew up to work in some facet of the auto industry. Well, one day grandpa decided to trade snowdrifts in Michigan for sunshine in Florida. Then he started his own business and you can probably guess what happened next. That's right, my Uncle followed with his clan and my parents and I arrived shortly thereafter. My uncle and my dad went to work for grandpa while my ant and mom found work as secretaries and bookkeepers.

Well, grandpa was an avid fisherman and he was willing to wet a hook at any time, if given the chance. In those days, vusiness was good, good enough that granpa could always afford a small fishing boat. So, one of the regular perks of working at Andrews Service Center became fishing trips on the boat with grandpa.

Being a Michigander means that you grew up near several huge inland waterways. And those lakes instilled the fishing instinct in grandpa. But by no means did that qualify him as a mariner. Grandpa was afraid of the ocean and that fear dictated the course he took as captain of his fishing boat.

Yea, if he were still alive today, grandpa would be classified as a flats fisherman. To him, fishing from a boat meant being able to look down and see the bottom, look up and see the shore and jump overboard and being able to jump overboard and walk to dry land really fast if he had to.

And those fishing pre-requisites were no problem back in the 50's and early 60's when my Grandpa was motoring the Intra-coastal waterways of Pinellas County from Indian Rocks to Clearwater in his fishing boat.

You see, Clearwater, Florida was named that for good reason, because the gulf, harbor and bay waters that lapped its coastline were crystal clear -- JUST LIKE THE KEYS!

How Clear were they?

Grandpa invited me along on his boat for a fishing trip one day in the Intra-coastal waterway off Clearwater. The weather was perfect and the fish were supposedly biting and I can still remember one particular incident that happened on that trip.

The four of us headed out early one weekend - grandpa was the pilot. My uncle and dad were in charge of drinking beers and my place was in the bow as lookout -- to make sure that grandpa's boat stayed in the channel.

Rule number one -- Never put a 7 year old in charge! I got distracted -- what can I say - and our boat ran aground (a couple times during the course of that day) And for those of you that aren't boaters -- running aground is not a good thing for numerous reasons.

And I'm completely convinced that grounding is what weakened the propeller's sheer pin. (that's the piece of metal that helps hold the propeller on the motor) Well, on the way back to the dock after a rather successful Day of fishing (and beer drinking) the sheer pin lived up to it's name. The pin broke and the propeller spun off into the deep blue of the Clearwater's Intra-coastal waters.

No worries however, my uncle quickly grabbed an oar and started paddling back to the area where the pin first broke as the rest of us hung over the side scouring the bottom.

Now keep this in mind, we were in the channel in about 12 feet of water and within 15 minutes or so, we were able to spot that stainless steel propeller lying amongst the sea grass.

My dad dove in the water, swam down and retrieved the propeller. Then the guys used a pair of pliers and a fishhook to fashion a makeshift sheer pin. The jerry rig worked well enough that we were able to limp back to shore. THAT'S HOW CLEAR THE WATER WAS THEN!

We paved paradise and put in a parking lot!

But unfortunately, those days of clear gulf and bay waters surrounding the shores of Pinellas County are long gone just like the predictable weather, sprawling citrus groves, and healthy lifestyle. They have all been displaced by the relentless influx of new residents and the infrastructure that had to be built to support them.

I have been a reluctant witness to the fact that Pinellas County has experienced such a population explosion since the 50's that the resulting growth has actually changed the area's climate. Furthermore, I realized that Pinellas isn't the only county in this state or country or area in the entire world that has undergone this type of change.

And that's why the headline on the front page of Sunday's newspaper hit me like a ton of bricks:

Rising sea level already eating away at Florida's coastline Ecosystems show visible change as global warming appears to speed up a natural process.

My grandpa was the first thing I thought about. There he'd be, rod in hand still standing in the stern of his boat fishing the Intra-coastal waters of Pinellas. And I could only imagine how uneasy grandpa would be if he were still alive today - no longer being able to see the bay bottom to judge water depth.

I know my grandpa would start to worry more about his safety than his fishing. And I know he'd start thinking about how he'd make it safely to shore in case of emergency or whether there would be any shore left at all - now that global warming was causing water levels to rise - at an increasingly alarming rate.

And I'm convinced that there is a little bit of my grandpa in us all. Because at the end of the day the concern for our environment will ultimately change from a debate about what causes Global Warming -- Man-made or Historic Cycle -- to one definitive question:

How long can you tread water?

…..till next week!