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The Villages
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Cost of climate change in Florida

To the Editor:

For many of us the issue of climate change has always appeared to be a problem that might affect places somewhere else and sometime far into the future. So it’s a surprise to find that climate change is already hitting our pocketbooks here in Florida. Whether or not you believe in climate change, property insurance companies do and are raising the costs of homeowner insurance to cover it, particularly here in Florida. Last year Florida state regulators signed off on dozens of property insurance premium rate increases and now our state legislature is considering legislation to enable property insurers to further shift related repair costs to homeowners. Insurers point to more frequent hurricanes and tropical storms as the major factor behind these rate increases.
For our friends along the coast dealing with sea-level rise, the cost of flood insurance from FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program will dramatically increase later this year. Compounding their coastal problems is loss of home value. A study out of Wharton University stated that Florida properties with sea level rise exposure lost from 5 to 10 percent of value in 2018 compared to homes not at risk. Another study by First Street Foundation showed that Florida lost about $5.4-billion in home value between 2005 to 2017 due to climate change and rising seas. Apparently “sunny day” flooding, which is getting steadily worse in south Florida coastal cities, scares home buyers looking for a long-term investment. Promises to build walls to keep out the sea come at an estimated astronomical cost of about $75-billion and do little to protect precious groundwater sources.
A recent congressionally-mandated Pentagon report assessed eight military bases in Florida as being at high risk for damage from climate change sea-level rise and increasing storm activity. Last year and again this year the Defense Department is doling out tens of millions of federal dollars to harden these facilities and other military bases around the US.
This month the Florida state legislature unanimously approved a bill to address climate change by providing $100-million of our state funds to protect roads, water treatment plants, and other facilities from floods, sea-level rise, and strengthening hurricanes. Helping to coordinate these expenditures will be Florida’s Chief Resilience Officer who is tasked with preparing for the economic impacts of sea-level rise and other climate change problems.
Sadly, none of the state or federal expenditures does anything to slow down the problem itself. This requires the force of the national government moving in a way that influences the rest of the world. Unfortunately, our representative in Congress — Daniel Webster — has been absent from this debate. In an issue so important to us in Florida we need an advocate in Congress. Give Representative Webster’s office a call (202) 225-1002 and Senator Rubio’s office a call (202) 224-3041 and encourage them to support legislation which will slow the rate of climate change. To do more, stop in at the next meeting of Citizen’s Climate Lobby at Moyer Recreation Center on May 18 at 4 p.m.

Jay Jacobson
Village of Pine Ridge

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