×
See Comments down arrow

Hitting the beach

08 Apr 2020 | OP ED Watch

No, we won’t be doing it any time soon, apparently. Or ever, if a new study from the European Union’s Joint Research Center is to be believed, predicting “the near-extinction of almost half of the world’s sandy beaches by the end of the century.” So why, asks John Tamny in RealClearMarkets, are ultrarich liberals still buying waterfront properties for ever-increasing prices? Can it be that, once again, they don’t really believe the scare stories they keep telling us?

Tamny’s hook is a spat between Hollywood “moguls” and former colleagues Michael Ovitz and Ron Meyer that included Ovitz scooping up a Malibu house for $5.5 million dollars that Meyer was eying. Eventually they sorted it out, Ovitz sold Meyer the house, and then last year Meyer put it on the market for (ulp) $120 million. (Calling to mind the New Yorker cartoon of the cubicle-bound worker sighing “I wish I had a salary that disgusted people.”)

As Tamny writes, it should go without saying that “what’s true in California is true around the world. Housing near the water is almost monolithically dear relative to what’s inland from the water. It’s almost a waste of words to write down what is so obvious. Yet it’s worth writing down in consideration of all the alarmism on the part of climate scientists (and those who aim to mimic them), and who claim that so much of the world’s beaches are set to disappear thanks to the theory that is global warming, or the tautology that’s climate change.”

Tamny rightly insists that if the accusations of “greed” against the rich (which we would add are strangely muted when it comes to Hollywood) are correct, they’d be more than concerned about the declining value of their homes as the surging seas lapped at the grand piano. And insurance companies who warn constantly of increases in extreme weather would be refusing to insure them. In short, follow the money, or watch what they do, not what they say.

As for what they say, Tamny ends his piece, “just once it would be great for the climate alarmists in our midst to answer why, if beaches are allegedly disappearing, beach houses are so expensive.”

2 comments on “Hitting the beach”

  1. Ah, but Leonardo is thinking ahead! He owns a yacht the size of Manhattan. He's ready for Waterworld II.

  2. Who to believe?
    "the European Union’s Joint Research Center is to be believed, predicting “the near-extinction of almost half of the world’s sandy beaches by the end of the century.” OR
    "...a scientific paper using the latest satellite techniques show that more than 70 % of the world's sandy beaches are stable or growing..."
    Go to: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-24630-6

Leave a Reply to Thylacine Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

searchtwitterfacebookyoutube-play