The BBC, having an undeserved reputation for honesty and good sense in the US that it has never enjoyed in its own country, has published a story that is actually funny in its misperception.
The article is about the increase in rents in the Miami, Florida area due to sea level rise. It seems that developers are buying up property inland from lower lying Miami beach areas, raising the rents of the impoverished residents and destroying a unique culture in the Little Haiti area.
Miami, perhaps the financial capital of Latin America, is itself an interesting and exciting urban landscape on the sea that attracts people from all over the world. There is a demand for the property there. But the city is located on the Atlantic Ocean. If property is to be developed there, it will happen further inland rather than on the ocean. And, as is usually the case, the elevation further inland is higher than it is on the shore. Since the beach area is already developed with new high-rise condominiums and apartments, any further construction will take place to the west, regardless of elevation.
The demand for this property means its price will increase, about as simple as economics can be. This is a fact everywhere, not just in locations that are supposedly scheduled to sink beneath the waves. If the current residents of Little Haiti are unable or unwilling to pay the rent or purchase the property they will, like others in similar circumstances, be forced to move to less desirable locations. Climate change and rising sea levels, even if true, have nothing to do with it. This is another example of the BBC, like other established media, promoting the existential threat of climate change through "climate pornography" rather than genuine science.
No comments:
Post a Comment