We talk a lot about climate models and future projections. For a farmer in Australia, the future is already here, and his land is washing away.\ \ A story out of Australia follows his farm in “flood country” as a warning of a much bigger problem. Forecasts show over a quarter of a million coastal properties there will face flood damage by 2100. The price tag is in the hundreds of billions.\ \ This isn't just a story about infrastructure risk. It’s about people losing their homes and livelihoods. It forces us to have the very hard conversation about managed retreat. Who pays for it? Where do people go? For those of us working in sustainability, this is a sharp reminder that our jobs are shifting. We're moving from prevention to adaptation, from spreadsheets to difficult human problems.
