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Comment by Analemma_ | Hacker News Reader

Property values are still climbing in Miami because the market seems to think that the city will be bailed out by some colossally-expensive engineering project to fix the problem on the taxpayer's dime. Nobody knows what that is yet- the usual levees and canals won't work because Florida is a limestone sponge and the water just comes up through the ground if you try to dam it- but they assume there'll be something.

Depressingly, the market is probably right. Abandoning Miami would mean admitting that global warming is real, and that's just not going to happen. Besides, "retreat" isn't in our vocabulary! `Murica!

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Property values are going up in Miami because it's 50 years away problem in a 5-10 year world. Everyone is buying and selling and hoping they won't be the person left holding soggy property. The city is already planning for the floods. New construction has to shops and parking on the ground floor. 2nd and 3rd floor has to be planned to be street accessible. That means when the street is eventually filled in the 2nd floor becomes the ground floor.

Now where they will get all that material to fill in the street is a good question.

Until recently I wouldn't have disagreed with a word of your post, but now... I think 50 years is probably optimistic. It seems more like 30 or so where Miami is concerned, and that means that the inevitability of it all should actually start to emerge (at least for some) in 10-15 years.

The rest of what you're saying I'm totally on board with, but I think the answer is: denial is like a crappy superpower.

I don't think that saving Miama is really possible, it's facing too much from too many sides. I think the biggest issue is that people love living there, and they'll believe it's over after it's over.

Of course, the first people to get the message will be those with some money and education, and their exist will tank that market. As for admitting anything, they'll just switch over to "It's not man-made!". There is no limit to the human capacity for self-delusion.

> I don't think that saving Miami is really possible, it's facing too much from too many sides.

I don't think it is either, but that doesn't mean we're not going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars trying.

Oh I see, yes I agree completely. We're going to exhaust resources in last-minute desperation, waste it in war and conflict, and then in the end maybe try to geoengineer out way out, which is one hell of a gamble if it's even plausible.

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