Great article from Michael Grunwald in Politico Magazine: “A Requiem for Florida, the Paradise That Should Never Have Been.”
He cites some really interesting history, noting that descriptions in the 1830s called Florida a muggy, swampy hellhole of a place.
The consensus among the soldiers was that the U.S. should just leave the area to the Indians and the mosquitoes; as one general put it, “I could not wish them all a worse place.” Or as one lieutenant complained: “Millions of money has been expended to gain this most barren, swampy, and good-for-nothing peninsula.”
But someone saw a chance to make money, so of course money had to be made, right? It’s the American way. But now the consequences are becoming evident.
Most South Floridians don’t think much about climate change, either, even though it’s creating more intense storms, even though the rising seas around Miami Beach now flood low-lying neighborhoods on sunny days during high tide. People tend not to think too much about existential threats to the places they live. They just live.
And the talk now is about returning, rebuilding. Make the cities more resistant to climate change’s impacts. Build resiliency.
It’s understandable. I lost everything in an apartment fire several years ago, and afterward all I wanted was to find a place, refurbish my life and get back to my normal routine. For the people out there without power, or staying in shelters, or looking at once-lovely homes with gutted drywall and black mold, that’s the impulse — restore, replenish, get back to the everyday. But we’re looking at a cycle of rebuild and repeat. When you pave over the swamps, marshes and wetlands that used to soak up the water, you shouldn’t be surprised when the water invades your home instead.
The question, for me, isn’t “how do we rebuild?” It’s: “Should we rebuild?”
For places where the answer is “no,” it gets complicated very quickly. Where will people go? Are there jobs if they go there? Can they afford to leave? Do they have the means to move? Can they get out from under mortgages and leases? That’s just to start.
And it will be expensive. But it’ll be more expensive to repeat the mistakes of our past and rebuild in places that should’ve have been built on in the first place. We can still enjoy our coasts. Maybe we just don’t need to live there.