Posted on 07/05/2023 5:21:37 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Maryland’s iconic Smith Island faces one of the nation’s most dire forecasts for rising seas, but real estate is booming.
... More homes have sold on Smith Island in the last three years than in the previous 11 combined, according to sales data. Locals see a story of hope. Their efforts to rescue a 400-year-old way of life tied to tide and season are beginning to bear fruit. Many question the doomsday predictions for the island or hope they can find a way to ride out rising waters.
Environmentalists see a dangerous kind of denialism. They say Smith Island’s long-term survival is doubtful, so the only rational path is retreat. They see the recent interest in the island as part of an unsettling national trend — studies show more Americans are moving into climate danger zones.
By the time Hurricane Sandy arrived in 2012, Smith Island had suffered a long decline. The population had dwindled from a peak of around 800 in the 1900s to less than 200 and an economy centered on crabs and oysters was fading. Roads were crumbling and a sewer plant failing.
Another threat was also looming: climate change.
William Sweet, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the island, which averages a couple feet above sea level, could see bay waters rise by roughly a foot by about 2050, meaning even moderate flooding could send waters sloshing across the land. By 2100, Sweet said, an additional foot of sea-level rise is expected — a scenario that could submerge most of the island.
Sweet said Smith Island’s situation is worse because it is sinking, a process caused by land settling after the last ice age, groundwater pumping and the compaction of earth stirred up by an ancient meteor strike.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Abortion,Global warming,fake racism/transphobia.
Is there anything else that matters?
We need to retain these insane morons back to the nuthouse where they belong.
Liberalism is a chronic, no-cure, debilitating, mental disorder that will eventually get us...and them killed.
Basket weaving has been in a slump for decades. Ever since they let them loose.
I hope it doesn’t tip over with the weight of all those people
Who is buying all these houses, if that island is really eroding away?
Can they even get flood insurance in such a place?
Forget the man made climate cultists, building on sand next to the ocean is just a dumb idea.
Back in the old days, I heard that oceans on the east coast seemed to be rising and those on the west coast lowering, because of tectonic plates.
These climate change Zealots don’t have enough common sense to LOOK at all of the beach front properties being purchased by our elites (oligarchs) I can’t believe how utterly stupid and gullible our college grads really are!!
When Obama abandons his beachfront Hawaiian mansion I’ll take it more seriously.
Until then, meh...
Can’t pump ground water, can’t dam any valleys for new reservoirs, can’t build any desal plants along the coast, can’t pump anything from rivers for the sake of a frog, and God help you if you collect rainwater in certain states.
NO WATER FOR YOU!!!
Plandemic-inspired moves. It is just a little too far to commute to DC daily; but do-able if you want to Zoom most days and just go in for meetings twice a month. Few of the young renovators eager to winter-weatherize a beach house with Tyvek and double-glazed windows were thinking long-long term.
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