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As an example, it is predicted that one third of Florida will be submerged under the ocean by the year 2100. However I haven't heard of any plans in plans in place to slowly relocate the city of Miami to a safer place within the next 80 years. Likewise governments in other countries don't seem to be planning to relocate their coastal areas any time soon and are in fact investing significant amounts of money into developing these regions.

What's the reason behind this? Does no government seriously believe that climate change will end up submerging their cities?

JonathanReez
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    This question is almost pure speculation. – David S Dec 13 '18 at 22:08
  • I've voted to close this question, in part for the speculation and also the extrodinary premise. – Drunk Cynic Dec 13 '18 at 22:20
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    Despite the fact the US currently has a president who has stated that climate change is a hoax by China to make the US less competitive, why would you assume the effect of current and future measures to reduce the effects of climate change would be moot? If you understand the issue enough to ask this question, you probably already know the answer. VTC – Gramatik Dec 13 '18 at 22:24
  • An obvious difficulty people are going to have is proving they don't. Given that there are (for example) plans for a zombie apocalypse, it's certainly not impossible that there are government (or military) plans for eventualities such as a sudden irreversible sea level rise. An obvious reason not to reveal any such planing is that it could involve seizure of land, and the imposition of martial law, neither of which are politically popular. – origimbo Dec 13 '18 at 22:32
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    @Gramatik whether or not the current efforts to reduce climate change would be successful is widely debatable, unlike the fact that oceans are indeed rising and would eventually submerge areas where hundreds of millions of people live. – JonathanReez Dec 13 '18 at 22:48
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    @origimbo no martial law would be required if you have a plan for 50 years in advance – JonathanReez Dec 13 '18 at 22:54
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    In most liberal economies the slow scale effect gets dealt with (eventually) by the rising cost of insurance. It's the outlier storm which defeats the flood defences that really needs planning for. – origimbo Dec 13 '18 at 23:07
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    Separately, look into the planning for the Cascadia Subduction Zone. – Drunk Cynic Dec 14 '18 at 00:15
  • climate change affects the whole world. There is ongoing research on finding another habitable planet – user17915 Dec 14 '18 at 01:07
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    @origimbo - flood insurance economics is basically &^*! (at least, in USA) due to populist policies underwriting flood losses with taxpayer funds (and this significantly under-pricing flood insurance). – user4012 Dec 14 '18 at 02:31

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First, because governments - and particularly the US government - don't really think or make plans much beyond the next election cycle.

Second, WRT the US in particular, it is not the government's responsibility to relocate people. If people in Florida don't want to live under water, they can pack up and move themselves.

jamesqf
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