The rising sea level, which is accelerating, threatens billions and billions of real estate assets. In Florida, insurers are reluctant to insure real estate for fear of a cyclone.
The latest report of the Giec alert on the rise of waters that is faster than expected. First consequence of this rise, the city of New York wants to build a giant dike.
It is the US military that is working with the mayor of New York. They want to build a dike 10 kilometers long, facing the Atlantic, capable of containing a rise of six meters from the sea level.
Six meters may seem huge but the report of the Giec on the oceans published on Wednesday is very pessimistic. The rise of the waters is accelerating and one more meter is expected, by the end of the century.
Above all, warmer oceans also mean more extreme events. What "happened once a century, will happen once a year by 2050," writes the Giec.
But in New York, we remember hurricane Sandy in 2012 when a wave five meters high had ravaged all of southern Manhattan. The metro had been flooded, hospitals had been evacuated and 40 dead had been counted. This is to say if this dam capable of containing a wave of six meters, is not superfluous.
Especially since there are economic issues because the south of Manhattan is Wall Street and buildings galore.
As a reminder, the twin towers of the World Trade Center have been compensated for up to four billion dollars. You imagine the anxiety of insurance companies.
This rising water is not just New York, all coastal cities are threatened?
In Florida, insurers also think about it.
Hurricane Dorian smashed the Bahamas, one day it will be Miami's turn. The psychosis is there, it is necessary to leave the coastal zone, before it is too late.
We are all concerned, including France.
This morning, in Le Figaro, real estate agents recognize it half-heartedly, apartments sea fronts on the Atlantic (in Lacanau for example) are selling less and less well.
We now want to settle preferably inland, dry.