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Should we be getting a little concerned?

• Venice is inundated and locals fear the old city is doomed.
• London struggles to find engineering solutions to hold back regular flood threats from the Thames.
• Recent scientific studies suggest the viability of major Asian coastal cities is under serious threat in coming decades…like soon.
• Here in the U.S., tinder-dry California suburbs recently deal with another round of worsening annual brush fires, which lead to mud slides in the ever-shorter rainy seasons.
• Miami Beach now floods on at least a monthly basis. The entire Eastern Seaboard is increasingly vulnerable to rising tidal levels, including the coastlines in the New York metropolitan area.
• Below sea level New Orleans is only one of the major cities along the Mississippi River vulnerable to extreme flooding while sections of the Gulf Coast erode in the face of rising tides.
• Unrestrained development in Houston has created a vast flood plain at risk to increasingly powerful Gulf storms.
• West of Denver to the California Coast the problem is too little water as mountain runoff into the Colorado River doesn't provide enough to supply increasing populations in vast dry or drying out regions.

Should we be following this course?

• The US pulls out of the Paris climate accords, abdicating a global leadership role to deal with climate change.
• Various environmental restrictions are eased to allow development in watershed areas or permit various forms of farm and industry related pollution to flow into available water sources.
• Air pollution and CO2 emission rules are weakened while federal lands are opened to more oil and gas drilling (that could lead to more not less CO2 emissions).

The US is clearly back tracking from Nixon era clean air and water acts which had demonstrably improved the nation's environment and public health.

And the real estate industry—where does it stand?

It can point to building or retrofitting LEED certified commercial buildings and greater interest in adopting various ESG standards in development and property management. Everybody advocates "sustainability." And why not install energy saving systems or plant landscaping that might help decrease water runoff, reduce CO2 levels a bit, and provide some cooling shade. It's really a no-brainer for long-term cost savings on energy bills and it provides nice window dressing for major investors and tenants who want to highlight good corporate responsibility. But mostly isn't this just window dressing?