5 ms·

It will probably take a single expensive disaster to change behaviours.

• johan_larson 10y ago
  That's my bet. Some time in the coming fifty years we will lose the first city to rising water. There will be attempts at mitigation, but they will fail either for lack of money or know-how. And after that we will think differently about this problem. It could be Miami. It's certainly low-lying enough, and big enough to count. But it's also in the United States, which has a lot of money to throw at problems. Some city in a poorer country would be a better bet.
  • pixl97 10y ago
    > Some time in the coming fifty years we will lose the first city to rising water. We've lost cities in the past due to hurricanes (which I count as a type of rising water). http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi865.htm http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi865.htm Galveston would have disappeared decades ago, until they lifted it and built a seawall. We throw a lot of money at the problem of the ocean. The issue is, sea level rise or not, the ocean will always win unless a constant stream of money is continually pumped into defense. TL;DR don't live near the ocean.
• maxxxxx 10y ago
  Unless they can push the cost onto taxpayers. People with oceanfront property usually are pretty well off/have influence.
• siculars 10y ago
  Katrina wasn't it?