Miami is 'ground zero' for climate risk. People are moving to the area and building there anyway
MIAMI — Daniel Habibian worries about climate change.
His clothing boutique in Miami Beach's iconic South Beach neighborhood sits just a few blocks inland from the Atlantic Ocean.
Rising seas threaten to swallow much of the Miami metro area in the coming decades as the world continues to warm and faraway ice sheets melt. By 2060, about 60% of Miami-Dade County will be submerged, estimates Harold Wanless, a professor of geography and sustainable development at the University of Miami.
Yet people keep moving there. The city's skyline has grown in tandem.
Miami's boom runs headlong into a harsh yet inescapable truth: It's «ground zero for climate change,» said Sonia Brubaker, chief resilience officer for the City of Miami.
Climate risk is «always on our thoughts,» said Habibian, 39, who moved to Miami-Dade County about six years ago.
"[Miami] is almost at sea level, so a bit of water can take it underwater," he told CNBC inside his store, Studio 26.
Outside, sun-kissed tourists and locals trickled by on their way back from the nearby ocean as reggaeton pulsed from flashy convertibles. The March air, a perfect 75 degrees, mixed with a gentle breeze that caressed palm fronds and passersby in a warm embrace.
Such weather is what drew Habibian to the area from New York.
«We like living here,» he said. «So we'll see what happens.»
The Miami metro area — including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach — is a low-lying swath of South Florida that is home to more than 6 million people.
Its urban sprawl juts abruptly from the Atlantic shoreline like a vertical spike of glass, metal and concrete.
Construction volume in the greater Miami metro area hit $27.4 billion in 2023, up 73% from $15.8 billion in 2014, according to an
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