Paging Canute: In Spite Of Scientists' Warnings, Coastal Towns Dump Money Into Beach Rebuilding

[hatrack]

EDIT

And as scientists declare with increasing certainty that the world’s climate is changing and seas are rising, beach leaders along the mid-Atlantic argue that resort shorelines must be armored against a future with more-extreme weather and tides that push higher and deeper into developed areas.

“The state of Maryland has invested millions of dollars into beach replenishment and has made it a priority primarily because of the economic impact of tourism in Ocean City,” said Melanie A. Pursel, executive director of the Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce. Adds Carol Everhart, chief executive officer of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce: “Our whole engine for tourism is the beach.”

The economic impact of beaches fortified with fresh sand spills into service industries and real estate, attracting both entrepreneurs and retirees searching for a laid-back lifestyle near the shore. Should resort beaches ever show signs of serious decline, Everhart adds, “It would be hard to list the things that it wouldn’t touch.”

A recent University of Delaware Sea Grant report, funded by the federal government, concluded that coastal communities between Lewes and Fenwick Island sustain 59,000 jobs and contribute $6.9 billion annually to Delaware’s economy.

EDIT

http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20120821/WCT01/120821001/Golden-sands-dollars

[hunter]

1. We're going to need a good political mechanism for abandoning coastal infrastructure.

With a free market we end up with impoverished people moving in as property loses value as it gets flooded out.

In our existing plutocracy we throw a lot of public money into "armoring the coasts" and simply delay the problem.

Ideally we'd be relocating people (buying them out?) and removing and recycling infrastructure in a rational democratic manner before property is eaten by the ocean.

Otherwise we end up with chaos -- with the oceans drowning people, ripping apart infrastructure, grinding up everything and turning it into pollution

Or we suffer authoritarian relocations -- "Here's a bus ticket and the keys to your new inland condominium, citizen. We will be removing this building in three weeks."

[phantom power]

2. you realize it's going to be the one with plutocracy, delay, impoverishment and chaos, right?

[hunter]

3. Like our health care system...

... there are too many very wealthy politically powerful people profiting from chaos, pain, and suffering.

[redqueen]

4. And of course it's *far* too much to expect the people

to read or understand anything upsetting. Those expecting to profit have an incentive to remain ignorant. Not sure what the hold up is for others.

[pscot]

5. Canute was an ironist

It's a Danish character flaw.