I’ve always dreamed of a retirement home on or near the
water. As a girl who spent a lot of her
youth on the Great South Bay and Fire Island beaches, my fantasy last act includes
a vision of me scooting around on a boat or lying on a chaise lounge on the
deck of my one-level waterfront home, watching and listening to waves lapping
the shore.
I may be buying waterfront in the Bronx if climate change
predictions are true.
Rising sea levels will make East Coast waterfronts
challenging in decades to come. The rise
in sea level in NYC is expected to be nearly 2.5 feet before the end of the
century – and in Hampton Roads, Virginia, near Norfolk and Virginia Beach, sea
levels are expected to rise by nearly 3 feet.
And then there’s Galveston, Texas at nearly 3.5 feet, etc., etc.
Man, that’s a lot of water!
But I can hear you saying, “Jan…sorry to break this to you…but you
probably won’t be around when this happens.”
Indeed. But it will
sure as hell make me think long and hard about any 30 year mortgage obligation
for Eastern Seaboard property designed for my dotage.
Of course, the bigger risk (at least, for me) with all of this climate
change stuff is the dramatic increase in temperature and all the associated
negatives, including allergens, spookily proliferating poison ivy and crappy
air quality, to name a few. As a gal
with some respiratory challenges, I can tell you this is not good news and
doesn’t augur well for my longevity.
Then again, on the subject of longevity, I believe less can
be more. I just want to have some fun
the last decade or two of my life. See
the world. Eat and cook some good
food. Enjoy some lovely wine and
beautiful sunsets. Bask in the company
of my partner for life, David, and my beautiful daughter.
At the same time, I hope our government and others can get
their act together on this climate change stuff; it would be nice to leave the
planet in decent shape for my girl, her children, and theirs too.
In my next post, I’ll turn my attention to world peace.
Have a good week.
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