24 Oct Climate Change And Real Estate

Climate Change And Real Estate

Climate change and real estate are intertwined. According to  Mika Tosca, a climate scientist at NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and a faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, during her talk at Inman Luxury Connect in Los Angeles, ““We’re likely to see rising sea levels threatening coastal development,” Tosca said. “A huge proportion of the United States and global population lives within five miles of the coast.”

Sea level is expected to rise at least three feet by the end of the century. Especially at risk are properties  within three feet or fewer above sea level in areas of  California, Louisiana, Florida, New York and New York City.  In fact a recent Zillow report showed that if sea levels rose by six feet,  nearly 1.9 million homes across the U.S., including some 33,000 homes in Miami and nearly 32,000 in New York City, would be underwater.

The rising temperatures in places like California haven’t helped the wildfire situation. Seeing the destruction left in the wake of this fire season left me in disbelief. It’s devastating to see what’s happened to so many people and businesses. Is this what we can expect more of in the future?

Image of NorCal fire devastation. Credit: California National Guard/Flickr/CC-by-2.0 and via Inman News

Tosca explained the global warming process “whereby carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas released by burning common fossil fuels like coal and gasoline, traps radiation from the sun in Earth’s atmosphere, warming the global temperature — about 2.2º F or 1.8º C over the last approximately 250 years, according to recent data. And the Earth is poised to warm further still, another 1 to 6ºC (1.8 to 10.8ºF) by 2100, according to projections.”

Thankfully, the presentation was not all doom and gloom as Tosca reminded the audience that lots can be accomplished if the population and governments come together to do big things and mitigate climate change. She cited the example of the Montreal Protocol of 1987, an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. The ozone treaties have were ratified by 197 parties, which includes 196 states and the European Union,making them the first universally ratified treaties in United Nations history.

Necessity really can be the mother of invention!