Is it time to start moving our coastal cities inland? [View all]

[MadHound]

Here we are, twelve years into the century of major climate change, and two major American cities have been inundated by hurricane driven storm systems, New Orleans and NYC. Neither city was truly prepared for their respective storms, though both cities had been warned years in advance that such disasters were not just likely, but pretty much inevitable.

Worse is in store for those that live along the various coasts of our country. Stronger hurricanes, rising oceans, more frequent disasters, piling on top of one another until the we reach the point where particular places can't recover from one disaster before another one hits.

So the question becomes, should we move these cities inland, now? Given that our current best models(which are have been recently revised upwards, and probably will be again as the full ramifications of global climate change come into play) show ocean rises of between three and five feet along our coasts by the year 2100, wouldn't it behoove us to move our cities now, rather than constantly paying to repair them?

Yes, that would mean leaving a lot of wonderful old buildings, places of cultural significance behind and at the mercy of the weather, but what other choice is there? Continuing to pay hundreds of billions to repair the damage every few years? Can we really afford that in the long run? I don't think so. Sooner or later, places like Long Island, Florida, New Orleans, etc. are going to have to be abandoned because they will become unlivable. Why not do it now, in a controlled manner, rather than later in a much less controlled manner?