Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 213 posts

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

#151

Post by [deleted] »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #113
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.

That isn't why the government intercedes in stuff like this. It intercedes because if it says "Welp. Not My Problem." and these folks say "Fuck it. Not Mine Either." and just walk away from their properties, declare bankruptcy, whatever, and become basically refugees within their own country, you have worse problems. My sister had a break-in at her home one year. She told me something like "Well, the benefits for Kat…

[deleted]

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

#152

Post by rjbwork »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #124
rjbwork wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but some places are far worse than others. Down here in Atlanta we get some pretty bad thunder storms (and accompanying low lying land floods), and rare but not unheard of hail. We're pretty far from any real faults, though we have gotten tiny tremors from east Tennessee and north/south Georgia before, they're at most 4-5, with everything in Georgia around a 3. We're far enough away from, and high enough above t…

I think that falls under personal preference. I was born and raised in Georgia. I'm abundantly familiar with what goes on there, weather-wise. Near daily thunderstorms in the summer. Electrical storms that can kill electronics, appliances or even people. If it snows at all, businesses shut down, schools shut down, car wrecks go up, etc. If it gets too cold, they sometimes shut down schools and businesses. When I was…

Yeah I hear you. I've been here for over 25 years. But we're getting less and less snow generally, but yeah pretty much any of it and things have to shut down because we don't have the infrastructure to deal with it. Better to just shut things down for a day or 3 a year instead of spending millions of dollars on the infrastructure to handle it.

I mentioned the flooding. The one major place that is often flooded is the connector near midtown where at the bottom of the 2 hills. There are certainly some flash floods on some streets especially when drains get clogged.

But you're right, there are issues here. I had a laptop zapped through a phone line > modem > ethernet > laptop from a lightning strike. I'd still take them over a straight up coast city's issues.

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

#153

Post by Dylan16807 »

paul_f wrote: post #147
Consultant32452 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barrack Obama just bought a multi-million dollar beachfront home. If any major public figure has the most accurate info about pending sea level rise, even classified level information that might not be released to the public, surely it's him.

This is an interesting fact related to the discussion, yet downvoted. Weird.

It's mildly relevant, but it's implying that somebody with 40 million dollars would never buy something that would lose money over time. Which is ridiculous.

A house doesn't have to be investment!

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

#154

Post by kls »

holler wrote: post #101
kls wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Keys (Summerland Key), so I think I have some skin the the game here. These is not and climate change exodus happening there is a real economic issue in the keys with workforce affordability, the average rent in the keys sits very near the average rent for San Francisco. A decent home for rent will run you between $3500 to $4000 a month. Meanwhile the average non-skilled job pays about $10 an hour in th…

what's it like living down there? do you work in tech? remote? went jet skiing off Key Largo recently and really enjoyed the area...

Yes I am in tech (if you are looking for a job we have openings, you might find it unbelievable but it's really hard to get developers to relocate to the Keys), I work for an anti-trafficking organization. You name it, guns, drugs, child-sex we track and try to interdict it (if you saw the recent news article where the Cost Guard jumped onto a sub built by the narcos, we where involved in that interdiction). That being said, my passion is in the abolition of child sex trafficking. Unfortunately there is not a lot of government and NGO funds focused on this effort so it becomes an also ran for us. Child sex trafficking and abduction is rampant in the Caribbean (not the Keys).

As a personal plug, I apply to THORN every time they post on the who's hiring thread, but never seem to make it to an interview. I would love to focus on child trafficking and exploitation solely.

Currently one of the projects I am working on is blockchain tech as this is becoming a huge market for pedophiles. They are encoding child porn images into, block chain smart contracts and are being paid via crpto for access to these smart contracts full of graphic child exploitation imagery. Anyways, another quick shameless plug for me if anyone from THORN reads this you should hire me! I know how these people operate and I know how to develop solutions to track and stop them.

Back to the subject, I work with 10 other developers, other than a few guys that work remote we represent the development community for 150 miles around us. It is very remote and there really is no tech industry here, but I am OK with that. The trade-off is that I get to go spearfishing with my children, we get to snorkel and scuba the second largest barrier reef (Which is dyeing if I have not mentioned that), boats are like bikes around here and I have been in a fight with a 14 ft Tiger shark over who was going to get to eat my hog fish. It really is a paradise (except for the occasional Hurricane that is, that and the fact that we have no waves to surf). Work where you live, not live where you work is a mantra I live by.

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

#155

Post by perl4ever »

dwaltrip wrote: post #136
perl4ever wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is just that people continually present opinions that require numbers in proper context to validate, but seemingly reject the concept that numbers in context are socially appropriate, at all.

We have enough context for the numbers. Taken in context, the numbers paint a very expensive picture economically (trillions and trillions of dollars), as well as a grave tale of unnecessary suffering for many tens of millions of people, if not more.

Suffering is necessary; I don't subscribe to the belief that it's somehow due as the wages of original sin, but to suffer and die is the fate of every human being. Not tens of millions, but all of the billions that have ever existed; not one has ever escaped it.

And money is an abstraction. You could eliminate trillions and trillions just by hacking the systems that keep track of who has how much.

What I'm trying to say is not that the consequences of climate change aren't grave, but that without mentioning specific numbers and their relationship to other numbers that describe reality, and researching and choosing those in good faith, you are saying nothing.

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

#156

Post by mercierlaw »

holler wrote: post #101
kls wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in the Keys (Summerland Key), so I think I have some skin the the game here. These is not and climate change exodus happening there is a real economic issue in the keys with workforce affordability, the average rent in the keys sits very near the average rent for San Francisco. A decent home for rent will run you between $3500 to $4000 a month. Meanwhile the average non-skilled job pays about $10 an hour in th…

what's it like living down there? do you work in tech? remote? went jet skiing off Key Largo recently and really enjoyed the area...

The Caribbean is beautiful for scuba diving, especially the Bahamas, except when there is a Hurricane. Why not code or be a technician there. There are risks in every community and generally the members of society tend to eventually know who you are, if your there long enough. Anyways, that's my two cents or 1 XLM lol.

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

#157

Post by Consultant32452 »

paul_f wrote: post #147
Consultant32452 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barrack Obama just bought a multi-million dollar beachfront home. If any major public figure has the most accurate info about pending sea level rise, even classified level information that might not be released to the public, surely it's him.

This is an interesting fact related to the discussion, yet downvoted. Weird.

I think the reason is that what I said isn't compatible with the most catastrophized interpretation of climate change. Climate change is one of the few topics alongside topics like guns and abortion where nuance is generally not welcome. Look at the other responses. Does "he's rich so he's probably just burning millions of dollars" feel like the most reasonable explanation of his behavior? I don't think that fits what I know of Obama's temperament. Apparently, some people disagree.

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

#158

Post by kls »

nl wrote: post #140
kls wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because, I have for the past 44 years been in a hurricanes path on a pretty regular interval. It has not changes with the exception of a single year where I got hit by 4 of them. After that for the past 14 years it has returned to that interval where about once ever 8 years I either get winged or direct hit by a hurricane. Unfortunately the last one was a major hurricane. It's been 2 years so in about 6 I will get wi…

You realize you are suffering from the human "ability" to make patterns from things that aren't with this theory, right?

Yep and I have also learned to not trust everyone that says the sky is falling and attribute every malty to some big bogey man. Let me remind you of the CRU corruption and various other scandals that have taken place in the quest for Cap and Trade. Real pollution is a far greater danger than AGW, I am not against the research into AGW and am not claiming that it does not exist what I am saying that has been proven with absolute certainly is that their are individuals using it as a scare tactic for financial gain, while there are far more immediate issues that we need to be concerned with, the ocean being the front and center issue, the poisoning of it is going to get us far before AGW does. As well I certainly contest that it has a hill of beans to do with Hurricanes or their severity. As the (as recorded by severity) worst seasons seen where almost 100 years ago.

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

#159

Post by kevingadd »

cure wrote: post #123
refurb wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That explains why more than half of the US federal budget pays for low income social programs. Because it’s a govt for the rich.

Citation needed, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget does not agree with this statement. I'm assuming you are conveniently forgetting that the 'Social security', 'Medicare' and 'Other spending' slices of mandatory spending go to rich and poor: these programs pay out their benefits to all people regardless of how wealthy they are.

Not to mention that social security and medicare funding comes directly out of every paycheck I get. It's dishonest to claim those payments are people leeching off the rich when a huge % of the beneficiaries literally paid for them.

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

#160

Post by Waterluvian »

paul_f wrote: post #145
Waterluvian wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited South Carolina for a wedding and we had a house on the ocean. Every house was on stilts. I asked locals and they said that it was so the houses survived storm season. One also said that they still get obliterated every 20 years or so but you just budget that in. 20 year rebuilds turning into 1 year rebuilds is what I think first world "climate exodus" looks like. Yes, they know the location is pretty bad. B…

Homes on stilts are designed to survive major storm. Cat 1 and 2 hurricanes. What is a 1 year rebuild? Are you saying a major hurricane will make landfall everywhere, every year? Because that's what you are implying.

I wouldn't fixate on the numbers. The point of the anecdote is that because climate change means more storms more often, the cut-off point for habitability gets shifted.
Post reply on HN