Given these real and growing risks to human flourishing, there is—hardly—time to be wiser. Looking into this future is like “looking down a railroad track and seeing this little light,” according to veteran scientist Bob Berry. When speaking to skeptics, he says, “We all know the train is coming. Oh my God, we’ve derailed.” There are many things Charleston can do to prepare for the moment the train rolls by. “We’re leaving and we’re not going back,” Perry says. He’s talking about Charleston.
Imagine if you were planning For a carefully orchestrated departure from the coastal fringe of the Charleston area was already taking place. There would be an announcement that over the next 10 years, for example, a package of incentives that would allow a modest but fair return on their investment in their homes would encourage people to move. These announcements will be accompanied by explicit and clear disclosures about the high risk nature of these areas.
Currently, it is very difficult for ordinary consumers to access good data on the risk profile of a particular residential property. The town of East Hampton, New York, released a report in mid-2022 showing that, absent extraordinary and very expensive protection efforts, by 2070 the city will be reduced to a “chain of islands” due to rapidly rising sea levels. It’s hard to imagine Charleston publishing similar information.
transport packages will be generated; A wide range of government taxes and credit leverages would spur new homes in safer areas. These new residential areas will be dense, well serviced by transit, and include loads of homes at really affordable prices. The land left behind once the inhabitants voluntarily leave will be transformed into protected swamps and parks, the very things that will help slow the flooding inland. It is very difficult to persuade anyone to leave his home if he thinks his land will be taken over and developed for profit once it has left and not left to be allowed to return to the protective swamps.
Policy makers will also report that after the first 10 years, incentives will be lower, possibly much lower, to encourage early decision-making. Coastal areas like Charleston (and many other places) will need to pay more attention to actually engaging with communities, including religious groups and nonprofits—not just seeking support for existing plans, or placating groups by projecting leadership on non-opposition members of the community. those communities. Such planning will require real partnerships mandated to create funded plans that recognize the environmental equity and justice issues involved in the transition. Until now, strategic relocation was a piecemeal thing, carried out by small towns working alone.
We urgently need to shift to strategic efforts that include social, cultural, physical and country-wide factors. As Professor A.R. Siders of the University of Delaware, a leading academic in the emerging field of strategic transportation, says, “It will take a great deal of innovation and work – in both research and practice – to make (transportation) an effective and equitable adaptation strategy of choice at scale.” To be mindful of the social costs of displacement, and to plan ahead to avoid cruelty and harm. What we really need is federal leadership and national planning – and funding – to withdraw from the coastal regions. Alice Hill of the Council on Foreign Relations thinks we need a national adaptation plan: “A plan at the national level would at least help prioritize our federal investment. We’ll be sending signals to state and local governments and the private sector as to where we’re going to work to make sure we’re building resilience and where we’re going.” It may not be more cost-effective for the federal government to get involved in it.” We need, she says, to “measure our progress,” too. “Should we invest in regenerating beaches, build a seawall, or help these communities transition completely? Without a national adaptation plan, it is very difficult to do that.”