Coastal perilSea level rise and coastal development: Science speaks directly to business
If you are an investor or a developer with an interest in coastal properties, you are being bombarded with evidence of climate change in the form of sea level rise and its consequences. In the academic community, many interested in the business of coastal development have begun to take into account information from climate scientists and have expressed frustration that government regulators are not doing so.
If you are an investor or a developer with an interest in coastal properties, you are being bombarded — in an ever more blunt and certain manner — with evidence of climate change in the form of sea level rise and its consequences. A recent paper by Geoffrey Heal, a professor of social enterprise at Columbia Business School, and Marco Tedesco, a research professor at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, states that sea level may rise as much as 15 feet by the end of this century. “Even the lower end of the wide range of possibilities, two feet, is sufficient to alter coastlines substantially: an outcome at the upper end of the range would be totally transformative of the U.S.’s coastline, with massive implications for coastal property and infrastructure.”
In the academic community, many interested in the business of coastal development have begun to take into account information from climate scientists and have expressed frustration that government regulators are not doing so.
At a 4 May meeting held in midtown Manhattan, members of the business community listened to their peers, Columbia Business School faculty, and climate scientists speak about sea level rise. The questions that followed each presentation indicated that the scientific information was new to some in the room, but the questions showed minds at work, looking for a new way forward.
After Lamont-Doherty scientists Robin Bell and Tedesco tersely laid out the evidence for accelerating rates of sea level rise, a member of the audience asked, “How much lead time do we have to react to this?”
“We should have started ten years ago,” said Peter deMenocal, director of the Center for Climate and Life at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a co-host of the conference. “The next 30 to 50 years of sea level rise are inevitable.”
