Worried About Sea Level Rise? Just Abandon New York, Pundit Advises

If sea level rise is unstoppable, the easiest solution might be to abandon coastal cities like New York, Miami, and Boston, Marlo Lewis of the fossil fuel-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute told U.S. National Public Radio a couple of weeks ago. “The built environment from the studies I’ve seen, most building stock turns over in about 50 years,” he told on-air host Tom Ashbrook. “So the markets adapt to this sort of phenomenon anyway.” According to a published study in Nature Climate Change, climate adaptation for coastal cities could cost up to $50 billion per year world-wide, “much more expensive,” Media Matters notes, “than simply preventing the worst damage from happening in the first place.” (h/t to Susan Stone)