Historic Walking Guides Florida Keys

Are people loving the Florida Keys to death?

In "Historic Walking Guides: Florida Keys," author Michelle Sheldone tells how the islands' accessibility is the same thing that is contributing to their demise.

"People celebrated being able to access the Florida Keys by land when Henry Flagler's Oversea Railway traveled bridges in 1912," she said. "Now, tens of thousands of vehicles traverse one Key West intersection alone during the course of a single year."

Sheldone begins her tale of the islands' history with the history of the land itself - nurtured in the womb of the sea as coral and sand and then born after the Americas collided, the gulfstream rushed north, glaciers formed and seas receded and revealed them.

Now, she details, the seas are reclaiming the Florida Keys as excess carbons from electricity hurry in global warming, causing glaciers to melt more quickly than they naturally would and rising seas to swallow acres of island mass. Sheldone notes also in the guide that waters also collect carbons in the air, producing mercury in fish and making it difficult for shellfish to grow their protective covers.

The author resided in the Florida Keys for eight years, writing from her home and helping to promote tourism to the area. She now resides in Palm Beach County, where she penned "Historic Walking Guides" initially for Destinworld Publishing in London and, in updated and expanded format, for Amazon's Kindle.