Yesterday was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the traditional start of summer. Here in the Great Land, sunrise this morning was at 4:13 AM, and sunset will be at 11:50 PM. Around the country, people are filling up the kids' swimming pools, firing up their grills — and making sure the air conditioners are working.
It's been a warm year for most of the country thus far, and it's going to be warmer still, which, of course, has the climate change folks worried; every year, they seem to be worried about warm weather showing up, even though summer has brought warm weather as long as the Earth has been spinning, sometimes warmer than others.
And, of course, a lot of people, in summer, head to the beach, and now we see that, despite warnings of rising sea levels, people are buying up beachfront properties.
America’s wealthiest appear to be playing the luck of the draw when it comes to purchasing and preserving beachfront homes on one of New England's most cherished islands.
On Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts, conservationists are cautioning locals that coastal erosion is strongly wearing down the island.
It's projected that by 2070, nearly 30 miles of roadway will be inundated by more than six inches of floodwater during regular high tides, according to the town’s Coastal Resilience Plan report released in 2021.
Because those predictions have always worked out so well in the past. Remember when the famous climate scientist, Al Gore, claimed Arctic sea ice would be gone by 2013 — and who now keeps dialing that prediction back?
That scraping sound you're hearing is the sound of goalposts being moved.
See Related: Where Are Those 500,000 EV Chargers Biden Promised? Turns Out They've Been Delayed by… DEI Requirements.
I'm fond of saying that the best thing governments, at all levels, can do is to get out of the way and let markets work. Markets are imperfect, but they usually get things right in the end, and the market for beachfront houses seems to be pretty good.
Bill Liddle, a partner at Great Point Properties on the island, said that for quite a few buyers, it is a dream come true to live on the coastline, and it depends on what area the buyers are looking for on the island.
"They are willing to take on this risk [of purchasing a home] that your average individual wouldn’t in exchange for being on the water," he told Fox News Digital.
Coastal erosion differs in all parts of the country — but the process by which local sea levels rise, strong wave action and coastal flooding wear down the coastline may result in carrying away rocks, sand, soil and even structures.
The report stated that over the next 50 years with sea-level rise, coastal flooding and erosion are expected to cause over $3.4 billion in cumulative damage across the island.
There is a legitimate concern, of course, with building houses in a lot of oceanfront areas. Coastal dune areas are notoriously unstable. They are subject to wind and sea erosion, especially during storms, and the article we are discussing here takes note of that, in addition to the usual claims of rising sea levels. But there's a key distinction: Storms are transient events and beach erosion can be abated, but rising (or falling) sea levels are long-term events — thousands of years. If the sea level comes up a couple of feet, quite a few very expensive beachfront properties will be flooded, like, say, the Obamas' homes in Hawaii and on Martha's Vineyard.
It always comes back to that, doesn't it? The Obamas talk a good game about climate change, including rises in sea levels, but they don't seem too worried about their oceanfront estates. Al Gore still has his expansive Tennessee mansion, which probably puts out about the same carbon emissions as Belize. John Kerry still has his private jet.
Something that hasn't occurred to these folks is that their climate panic would be a lot more convincing if they comported themselves as though they actually believed it. The folks buying up properties in Nantucket don't seem to be too concerned.
Fire up that grill! Enjoy a good steak or a nice thick burger. Trust me, the earth will go right on spinning, and cold weather will return again soon enough.
