Science

U.S May Have to Spend Over $400 Billion on Seawalls by 2040 to Protect Itself From Rising Seas

BUILD THOSE WALLS

Florida alone is likely to have to spend $76 billion on seawalls in the next two decades as sea levels continue to rise.

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Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon

Donald Trump may be slightly less enthusiastic about these walls. A new report has predicted that the U.S. will have to spend $416bn on seawalls in the next 20 years in order to protect itself from rising seas. The report comes from the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI.) Florida is likely to face the highest bill of $76bn by 2040, according to the research, followed by Louisiana which has a projected bill of $38bn, then North Carolina which stands to pay $35bn. “I don’t think anybody’s thought about the magnitude of this one small portion of overall adaptation costs and it’s a huge number,” said Richard Wiles, executive director of the CCI. “So the question is, who’s going to pay for that? Is it really going to be taxpayers? The current position of climate polluters is that they should pay nothing, and that’s just not tenable.”

Read it at The Guardian

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