Collapsing Surfside Building Changes Landscape of Climate Change Debate

ENGLEWOOD, Fla. - June 25, 2021 - PRLog -- While not quite predicting the collapse of structures built with ill-regard to environmental factors, such as the catastrophic event taking place in the wee hours of the morning of June 24^th at Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, author B. Shawn Clark, in an episode airing on You Tube that is based on 20/20 – his CLI-Fi novel set in Miami's Upper East Side just 8 miles from the site of the catastrophe – recounts how man-made accommodations, destined for destruction by the elements, are built and then rebuilt with no regard to resiliency or sustainability.

"Anyone paying attention in the Miami area – or any coastal environment – is aware that buildings exposed to salt air and water are vulnerable to the process of spalling (see link below) which weakens the structural integrity of places like Champlain Towers.  What do you expect when you plant a 13- story building like that right up close to an eroding shoreline, built on a base of veritable quicksand that reportedly has caused the tower to gradually sink over the past 40 years?"

Clark warns that tragedies such as what happened in Surfside, while new to us now, are in reality yet another example of what has been heretofore unforeseen by most, yet are an entirely predictable outcome of mankind's lack of respect for the natural world.  "It is a mistake to think of events such as this – and many more to come - as caused by climate change.  Sure, human behavior is exacerbating the adverse impacts climate change is bringing to bear on our artificially-created human habitats.  The real issue is not whether these impacts are coming – they are – but what we intend to do about it.  If you build a house of cards and a big bad wolf blows it down, will you learn from that, or just bring out a new deck and build another flimsy place to live?" Clark asks rhetorically.

"If you do, sounds like someone is not playing with a full deck."

YOU TUBE EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1SVnC1zLIo



ARTICLE ON SPALLING (https://www.robsonforensic.com/articles/concrete-spalling...)