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America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

bloomberg.com

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Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#31

Post by baking »

ForHackernews wrote: post #3

Where are the insurance companies on all this? Shouldn't it become increasingly more expensive to insure a low-lying property? Are they not including climate risks in their modelling?

A few years go, I heard that Florida was updating its flood maps from the 1970s. Having a number of family members living in Florida I checked out the updated maps only to find that they had only made relatively minor adjustments to the property elevation, but no adjustment to the flooding scenarios. The end result was that one property might be added to a flood zone but a neighboring property might have been removed from the flood zone. There was no accounting for climate change or even normal sea level rise in the 40+ years since the previous version of the maps.

Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#32

Post by baking »

whatshisface wrote: post #4
ForHackernews wrote: post #3

Where are the insurance companies on all this? Shouldn't it become increasingly more expensive to insure a low-lying property? Are they not including climate risks in their modelling?

Insurance policies aren't typically bought 100 years into the future. Often, rates change from year to year.

Also, a 100-year flood is a misnomer. It is a flood that has a 1% chance of happening in the current year. It does not attempt to assess what the probability of a flood will be in 50 or 100 years.

Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#33

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

ForHackernews wrote: post #3

Where are the insurance companies on all this? Shouldn't it become increasingly more expensive to insure a low-lying property? Are they not including climate risks in their modelling?

They peaced out long ago on something they could be useful on and you actually have to buy flood insurance separately I believe. That’s how it was when I bought my last house.

Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#34

Post by nealabq »

todd8 wrote: post #17

SLR (sea level rise) is a problem, but this article promotes a kind of alarmist version of SLR, in my admittedly inexpert opinion. SLR has been going on for 20,000 years, and it may be accelerating in the last few decades due to global warming; however, if your property is threatened by a 3mm SLR per year you probably didn’t make a wise purchase in the first place. 2+mm SLR per year has been going on for at least 150…

The paper you cite is dated 2013 and says SLR has been 3mm/year since the 1990s. It mentions the possibilities of more dramatic rises by 2100 but doesn't go into much detail.

If we're talking about a meter of SLR in the next 80 years, thats 12.5mm/year.

Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#35

Post by AtlasBarfed »

watertom wrote: post #26

Why is the government buying these people out? The homeowners weren't forced to purchase these properties, so it's not the government's responsibility to remediate the situation.

Rich people own beach property.

This is a government for the rich.

Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#36

Post by harimau777 »

watertom wrote: post #26

Why is the government buying these people out? The homeowners weren't forced to purchase these properties, so it's not the government's responsibility to remediate the situation.

If the government failed to hold corporations that emitted greenhouse gasses accountable for their externalities then I'd say that it becomes the government's responsibility.

Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#37

Post by baking »

todd8 wrote: post #17

SLR (sea level rise) is a problem, but this article promotes a kind of alarmist version of SLR, in my admittedly inexpert opinion. SLR has been going on for 20,000 years, and it may be accelerating in the last few decades due to global warming; however, if your property is threatened by a 3mm SLR per year you probably didn’t make a wise purchase in the first place. 2+mm SLR per year has been going on for at least 150…

This is the opposite of alarmist. A 3mm/year SLR is pretty much the best-case scenario. An alarmist but still possible scenario would be 3 meter SLR from the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#38

Post by justinhj »

watertom wrote: post #26

Why is the government buying these people out? The homeowners weren't forced to purchase these properties, so it's not the government's responsibility to remediate the situation.

The money is coming from disaster relief funds. The alternative is to pay to repair the home over and over

Re: America’s Great Climate Exodus Is Starting in the Florida Keys

#40

Post by awinder »

watertom wrote: post #26

Why is the government buying these people out? The homeowners weren't forced to purchase these properties, so it's not the government's responsibility to remediate the situation.

Because it’s the right thing to do, costs a pittance in the grand scheme of things, and is the cheapest course of action compared to continuing to rebuild. The article begins with a woman who can’t afford to get out and just got running water for dishes for the first time in 2 years, these aren’t all people living high off the hog.
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