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Climate change could swamp this island. Home sales are surging.
The Washington Post ^ | July 5, 2023 | By Justin Jouvenal

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: globalwarming; hoax; justinjouvenal; maryland; propaganda; realestate; realty; socialism
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Abortion,Global warming,fake racism/transphobia.
Is there anything else that matters?


41 posted on 07/05/2023 6:50:12 AM PDT by Leep (What skill or service did the biden family have that netted them tens of millions of dollars?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

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.


42 posted on 07/05/2023 6:53:16 AM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created...")
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To: lgjhn23

Basket weaving has been in a slump for decades. Ever since they let them loose.


43 posted on 07/05/2023 6:54:41 AM PDT by Leep (What skill or service did the biden family have that netted them tens of millions of dollars?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I hope it doesn’t tip over with the weight of all those people


44 posted on 07/05/2023 6:56:44 AM PDT by changeitback440
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Who is buying all these houses, if that island is really eroding away?

Can they even get flood insurance in such a place?


45 posted on 07/05/2023 7:20:02 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: kiryandil

Forget the man made climate cultists, building on sand next to the ocean is just a dumb idea.


46 posted on 07/05/2023 7:23:53 AM PDT by Mogger
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To: Oldeconomybuyer; grobdriver

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.


47 posted on 07/05/2023 7:54:08 AM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: Retain Mike

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!!


48 posted on 07/05/2023 7:57:57 AM PDT by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

When Obama abandons his beachfront Hawaiian mansion I’ll take it more seriously.
Until then, meh...


49 posted on 07/05/2023 8:08:25 AM PDT by servo1969
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To: kiryandil

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!!!


50 posted on 07/05/2023 11:49:08 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: Palio di Siena
"I’ve been to Smith Island quite a few times over the years."
Sixty odd years ago I had a 30 foot (water line) center board ketch build by a eight-five year-old man on Smith Island, rigged it out on Buzzards-Point boat yard in Washington and sailed to the Florida Keys. My wife and I visited the island again in the 1970s-80s.
51 posted on 07/05/2023 12:57:36 PM PDT by Hiddigeigei ("Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish," said Dionysus - Euripides)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
More homes have sold on Smith Island in the last three years than in the previous 11 combined, according to sales data.

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.

52 posted on 07/05/2023 2:47:58 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (“There is no good government at all & none possible.”--Mark Twain)
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