Miami Real Estate Market Shows How Climate Denial Is a Luxury of Wealth

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This is a guest post by ClimateDenierRoundup.

Two great pieces of journalism were published this week weโ€™d like to draw attention to today. While neither were particularly focused on climate change denial, taken together, they provide some helpful insight into denial not only as a state of mind, but as a function of luxury andย privilege.

Thatโ€™s the underlying message ofย Sarah Millerโ€™s recent piece in Popula. Miller poses as a wealthy married woman interested in purchasing pricey Miami real estate, feigning interest before springing her key question: Is it smart to buy something with a 30-year mortgage in Miami, given the fact that sea level rise is already regularly flooding theย city?

One after another, high-end real estate agents assure Miller that sea level rise is โ€œsomething the city is trying to combatโ€ by โ€œraising everythingโ€ and installing pumps. One, who couldnโ€™t think of the word โ€œstudies,โ€ mentioned that she knew someone who paid for a study that said โ€œwe shouldnโ€™t be concerned. Unless you have a family, and youโ€™re planning on stayingย here.โ€

Miami: a thriving city with new construction thatโ€™s perfect for you, as long as you donโ€™t intend to stay for your full 30-year mortgage. One agent tells Miller that the raised sidewalks and new pumps mean all that excess water just goes โ€œinto the drain,โ€ and therefore the problem isย โ€œfixed.โ€

And one of Millerโ€™s real estate agents reminded her that the โ€œscientists, economists and environmentalistsโ€ who are concerned about climate impacts to Miami shouldnโ€™t be, because โ€œthey donโ€™t realize what a wealthy area thisย is.โ€

Sadly, thatโ€™s probably more right than it should be. Assuming we continue letting the neoliberal approach of money mattering most guide our public policy efforts, we will choose to protect the most expensive real estate first, and best. Those who can afford to lobby policymakers to protect their prized property with sea walls and raised sidewalks will be fine, and communities who can afford to buy and install new pumps might not be too upset, at least in the first fewย decades.

But for those who canโ€™t simply throw money at the problem, climate change is already leading to incredible struggle and community-wide upheaval. Because while Miamiโ€™s still able to pretend thereโ€™s plenty of time to solve this problem, communities in Central America donโ€™t have that luxury, and they are already emptyingย out.

As a result, Jonathan Blitzer reports in the New Yorker, โ€œclimate change is fueling the U.S. border crisis.โ€ ย Blitzer and photographer Mauricio Lima traveled to the western highlands of Guatemala to capture personal photos and stories showing how climate change is already guttingย communities.

Whether itโ€™s freak frosts, pandemics of pests that wipe out crops, or unpredictable rains that upset ancient planting calendars, the wild weather conditions of a warming world are making situations more desperate. Facing few options to compensate for the lack of farming at home, families face the difficult decision of whether or not to immigrate to the U.S. forย work.

Guatemalan forestry expert Yarsinio Palacios told the New Yorker that while โ€œthere are always a lot of reasons why people migrate,โ€ like an illness in the family, โ€œin every situation it has something to do with climateย change.โ€

Programs that would help these communities adapt and build resilience to climate impacts would, in turn, ease the flow of immigrants into the United States. One such program, which taught farmers how to diversify crops and others how to survive in this new climate, was cut by the Trump administration, eliminating one of the key policies that eases the pressure to immigrate. If immigration is an emergency situation, Trump took off the tourniquet. (And thatโ€™s a BIGย โ€œIfโ€โ€ฆ)

Apparently the administration isnโ€™t worried about the climate conditions in Central America, which are fineโ€“unless, in the words of Miamiโ€™s finest real estate agents, โ€œyou have a family, and youโ€™re planning on stayingย here.โ€

Main image: South Florida homes. Credit:ย juanngomezz,ย Pixabay

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