FIU Global Learning and New York Times Journalist Host Climate Change Discussion

Thaniuska Vivas / Staff Writer

From mass floods caused by intensifying storms to low levels of oxygen in Biscayne Bay, Miami is facing climate change like never before.

“What had seemed very far in the future, even five years ago, now seems like a problem for today,” New York Times journalist, Christopher Flavelle said during a virtual keynote discussion on the effects of climate change. 

During the discussion held on Tuesday, Feb. 23, Flavelle in collaboration with the FIU Global Learning department spoke about how Miami is impacted by climate change in terms of social, economic and political challenges and what the city’s climate change experience means for the rest of the nation. 

According to Flavelle, one of the most challenging effects of climate change in South Florida is climate gentrification, a term which he calls “a Miami story.”

Climate gentrification is when wealthier residents begin looking for properties, which tend to be in low-income neighborhoods, that are far from the coast and are in higher elevations to escape the rising sea levels. 

“The concern is that over time, white and wealthy residents will push poor and minority residents out of those neighborhoods and destroy the fabrics of those communities,” he said. 

Flavelle said that the rising sea levels have contributed to rising housing prices, tougher building codes and rising demands for communities to be pushed as far from the coast as possible. 

“At some point, climate change won’t be enough for governments to decide who to help first,” he said. “They’ll have to start thinking about which places are worth saving at all.”

Climate change is not only hurting the state of Florida environmentally, but also economically.

Flavelle shared with the audience the frustrations of some residents of the Florida Keys who are paying almost $10k every year on home insurance costs alone. He also shared how county officials in the Florida Keys calculated that it would cost $75 million in 2025 in order to keep a single stretch of a road dry and elevated. 

According to Flavelle, by the year 2045 it would cost the county $120 million, and then $181 million by 2061 just to keep that single road elevated as sea levels rise. 

“You start to realize that probably, there isn’t enough money to raise every road,” Flavelle said. “And by probably, I mean almost certainly.” 

He shared that these economic challenges will also be felt by other coastal states, which places a financial burden on the federal government.

Flavelle motivated the audience to speak with their local elected officials about climate change and ask them about their actions to combat climate change.

“Local politics tends to be the place where any one voter can have the most impact,” he said.