Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama are reportedly buying this $14.8 million Edgartown mansion. Image courtesy of Landvest
Climate change is already making its power felt on the coast of Massachusetts, with rising sea levels already swamping waterfront communities like Edgartown during big storms.
Not a week goes by without scientists and climate activists in the news warning of the need for a “retreat” from the coasts.
So why in the world are the Obamas reportedly plunking down nearly $15 million for a waterfront estate in Martha’s Vineyard?
State a Poster Child for Climate Threat
I don’t begrudge former President Barack Obama, who is a class act and was often vastly underappreciated during his eight years in office.
But his and former First Lady Michelle Obama’s pending purchase on a vulnerable stretch of island coastline is yet another example of why it has been so difficult to mobilize our society to take effective action to curb climate change and prepare for its now–inevitable impacts.
From the buyers of waterfront mansions to developers with multi–billion-dollar harborside construction plans actions, especially in the highly visible arena of real estate, are falling far short of words.
In fact, the Bay State is shaping up to be the poster child for this widening gap, with its frenzied waterfront real estate market standing in sharp contrast to the looming threat of rising seas.
Tens of billions have already been pumped into Boston’s 1,000-acre Seaport in the form of infrastructure and a bevy of new high-rises, with billions more in the works as John Hynes and other developers roll out new projects like the massive Seaport Square.
No other city is making a commitment on such a massive scale to a new waterfront neighborhood, even as concerns about climate change and rising seas grow graver by the month and year.
The ocean is only seen as a twinkle through the trees from this second-floor deck on a mansion reportedly being bought by former President Barack Obama. But by 2100, it could swallow the house whole. Image courtesy of Landvest
“Boston Built a New Waterfront Just in Time for the Apocalypse,” Bloomberg Businessweek intoned in a piece this past June.
As developers scramble to raise buildings above storm surge levels, Boston’s Seaport is emerging as a vast experiment, the magazine noted.
Boston Harbor is spilling over into the city now a dozen times a year, up from two or three times back in 1960, the piece notes, with the harbor on track to rise another two to four feet by the end of the century.
The Sea Will Swallow Them
After years spent warning of the dangers of climate change and the threat it poses to our nation’s coastline, the timing of the Obamas’ decision to plunk down millions for a mansion along a stretch of highly vulnerable Martha’s Vineyard coastline is a bit peculiar.
“Rising sea levels threaten every coastline,” President Obama told attendees at a United Nations climate conference a few years back. “On shrinking islands, families are already being forced to flee their homes as climate refugees.”
The Obamas’ seven-bedroom mansion sits on a 29-acre spread with private beaches, a master suite with a fireplace and its own sundeck, as well as a dining room lined with windows with assuredly breathtaking views of the ocean nearby.
In fact, those ocean views are likely to improve over the years, with rising sea levels likely to bring the shore ever closer to the Obama’s summer getaway.
How close is certainly worth asking. The Daily Caller, a right-wing website, claims to have plugged in the address of the Obamas’ manse into a website run by Climate Central that models the impact of rising seas on coastal properties.
By the year 2100, the mansion would be completely underwater, the Daily Caller claims, though it acknowledges using the most “extreme” climate change projections to get there.
The Buyers Keep Coming
Of course, the Obamas and most the rest of us of the planet over the age of 20 won’t be around to see the ocean overrun their mansion, though it could be bummer for the grandkids.
However, we don’t have to rely on some futuristic scenario to see the impact of sea level rise on the resort island.
Scott Van Voorhis
Martha’s Vineyard is already getting battered by rising seas, with storms in recent years swamping Dock Street in Edgartown and other popular destinations.
Increased tidal flooding washed away $273 million in real estate valuations along the Massachusetts coastline from 2005 to 2017, according to a study by Columbia University and the First Street Foundation.
Yet the buyers keep coming.
The median price on Dukes County, which covers Martha’s Vineyard, hit $780,000 in August, up 13.1 percent from the year before, stats from The Warren Group, publisher of this newspaper, show.
Nantucket’s median price closed in on $1.5 million, for a rise of 16.8 percent, in August.
Money talks. And the message being delivered by all that money flooding is that it’s business as usual, despite the increasingly urgent and even apocalyptic warnings about impacts of rising temperatures and surging seas.
Scott Van Voorhis is Banker & Tradesman’s columnist; opinions expressed are his own. He may be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.
