After the Flood

Google takes a bite out of Florida ...

So there I was, just fiddling around in my Google Analytics reports to see where my latest hits were coming from. Suddenly I did a doubletake, because there was something funny about the familiar South Florida coastline.

Apparently Google has flashed forward in time and redrawn the map to reflect rising sea levels. That's the only reason I can think of to explain why Marjorie Stoneman Douglas's "River of Grass," AKA the Everglades, is now a river of water with the cities of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Palm Beach clinging to a narrow isthmus sticking out into the Gulf Stream.

Well, this should silence the skeptics once and for all. No global warming? How about no snows on Kilamanjaro? How about an ocean instead of an ice sheet at the north pole? These things are normal? Maybe when their favorite golf course submerges they'll catch on. Or when Sara Palin can't find any polar bears to shoot near her balmy beachfront property in Alaska.

Hm, on second glance it's even worse than I thought, because the island city of Miami Beach doesn't appear on the map at all. Guess we'll have to knock down all the buildings once the lower floors are flooded out. Maybe it will make a nice artificial reef.

Got a better explanation? Let me know, because I need to find out if I have to sell my house ... quick!