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Sea Level Rise

Bank Regulators Present a Dire Warning of Financial Risks from Climate Change

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 11.14.2019

 

Home values could fall significantly. Banks could stop lending to flood-prone communities. Towns could lose the tax money they need to build sea walls and other protections.   These are a few of the warnings published by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco regarding the financial risks of climate change. The collection of 18 papers by […]

 

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We Were Warned 30 Years Ago – Now Global Warming is “in our living room”

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 06.27.2018

 

On June 23, 1988, a sultry day in Washington, James Hansen told Congress and the world that global warming wasn’t approaching — it had already arrived. The testimony of the top NASA scientist, said Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, was “the opening salvo of the age of climate change.”   Read the entire article at The […]

 

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Florida Newspapers Team Up to Highlight Threat from Sea Level Rise

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 05.07.2018

 

The editorial boards of the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel and Palm Beach Post — with reporting help from WLRN Public Media — are joining hands in an unprecedented collaboration this election year to raise awareness about the threat facing South Florida from sea-level rise. In drumbeat fashion, they plan to inform, engage, provoke […]

 

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The Risk of Sea Level Rise is Chipping Away at Miami Home Values

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 04.30.2018

 

Creeping flood waters driven by sea rise have yet to reach the doors of most homes in Miami-Dade, but research shows the looming threat from climate change is already affecting their value. And not in a good way.   Read the entire article at The Miami Herald.    New data from Harvard University and the University […]

 

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Insuring Nature to Ensure a Resilient Future

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 03.21.2018

 

What’s happening on a 60-kilometer stretch of coastline on Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula may change how the world values its coral reefs.   Read the entire article at The Nature Conservancy.   In 2005, Mexico’s Caribbean coast was struck by two hurricanes, causing USD$8 billion in damages and closing hotels and other businesses in Cancún long […]

 

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DFA’s flood-proof towers could survive six feet of sea level rise in Manhattan

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 02.28.2018

 

New York-based architecture firm DFA just unveiled plans for 19 cylindrical apartment towers that can survive six feet of sea level rise at Manhattan’s Pier 40. The towers are wrapped in lattice facades with lots of vegetation, and they’re designed to address the city’s lack of affordable housing and flood-resistant buildings.     Read the […]

 

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San Francisco Design Teams Compete for Best Solutions to Sea Level Rise

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 06.19.2017

 

Read the entire article at The San Francisco Chronicle.    An ambitious design competition that seeks to make the Bay Area a model for how to prepare for sea-level rise kicks off this week. The competition, dubbed “Resilient by Design,” will select 10 interdisciplinary teams to tackle 10 sites around the bay, with at least one […]

 

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Mainland Miami Ponders Returning Neighborhoods to Nature to Survive Rising Seas

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 06.14.2017

 

Read the entire article at The Miami Herald. On mainland Miami, miles away from the pumps that keep Biscayne Bay from slowly swallowing South Beach, the neighborhood around Ray Chasser’s riverfront house seems like it’s drowning one high tide at a time.     When the moon is full and the bay bloated, a salty soup […]

 

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How Rising Seas and Coastal Storms Drowned the U.S. Flood Insurance Program

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 06.07.2017

 

Read the entire article at YaleEnvironment360.   Sea level rise and more severe storms are overwhelming U.S. coastal communities, causing billions of dollars in damage and essentially bankrupting the federal flood insurance program. Yet rebuilding continues, despite warnings that far more properties will soon be underwater.     The federal insurance program has subsidized thousands […]

 

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Miles of Ice Collapsing into the Sea

Bob Leonard - Climate Risk Manager 05.26.2017

 

Read the entire article and see all the images at The New York Times.   Four New York Times journalists joined a Columbia University team in Antarctica late last year to fly across the world’s largest chunk of floating ice in an American military cargo plane loaded with the latest scientific gear.We went to Antarctica […]

 

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