Miami Beach, United States--Miami Beach's condo boom is bubbling hot, with glass towers being built as fast as they can be -- even as scientists say rising seas could swamp much of the storied city by the century's end.
City officials are betting that a surge in real estate tax dollars fueled by the property boom will bankroll big investments in fighting the effects of climate change.
Many scientists, however, have doubts about how much can be done, and how soon, to stem tides that few until recently thought would rise so fast.
The sea and sand lifestyle is big business for the area. Millions of tourists visit Miami Beach's white sands and Art Deco buildings every year.
Residents of the city -- which sits on an island just off downtown Miami -- have grown increasingly used to seeing streets flooded with seawater, even on sunny days.
Almost all of low-lying Florida's population of just under 20 million lives crowded along its two sandy coasts. Florida is already the third most populous US state -- and expects to grow as the US baby boom generation heads into retirement.
And the island on which Miami Beach sits is on the frontlines for storm and tidal surges. As a whole, the state's mean elevation is just 100 feet (30 meters).
To help get its standing water out, Miami Beach alone is installing a pumping system expected to cost $300-500 million.
US President Barack Obama, who traveled to Florida's Everglades Wednesday in a high-profile push to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change, acknowledged that "folks are already busy dealing with this."
"We don't have time to deny the effects of climate change," Obama said, as he spent "Earth Day" in the subtropical wilderness.
"Nowhere is it going to have a bigger impact than here in South Florida," he said.
AFP
