Climate change: Miami Beach already feeling effects

Over 60 US mayors are vowing to ignore president Trump's Paris agreement withdrawal, including the mayor of Miami Beach, Florida. extreme high tides and hurricane storm surges are a constant concern for the island city. 

Miami Beach is already coping with serious issues -- from rising sea levels and land subsidence. The city's traffic system is a maze of detours, chiefly because officials are taking the dramatic step to raise low-lying roads by about one meter. 

Scientists are putting together maps to show how flooding is expected to swamp much of the area by the middle of the century. within the next 85 years, they predict the sea level could rise close to two meters. Much of Miami would be under water, creating as many as two million climate refugees.

The option now is to spend millions on flood walls, improved pumps, and raising streets. Scientists say climate change will catch up with the area, the only question is when.