I suspect that UNH researcher Cameron Wake, who  has been warning about climate change for a couple of decades – I’ve been writing about him since at least 2004 – is getting a little tired of operating within academic restraints. At a recent editorial board meeting with the Portsmouth Herald, he let fly with the most powerful ammunition he could find: Rising sea levels are going to hurt Seacoast real estate.

“My recommendation is why deal with the headache? Sell now while you can still get money out of the home,” he said (of south Portsmouth). As for Hampton Beach, he said, the town’s move toward making the beach a 5-star resort area is misguided at best. “Hampton Beach is so at risk, so vulnerable, so exposed” that it makes no economic sense to continue on that path. (Here’s the whole article.)

Hoo boy. It’s one thing to alert us that climate change will devastate ecosystems, will displace, starve or flood millions of people in other parts of the world, and will cause regional instability throughout the globe. We can handle those claims. But when you say things that will hurt housing resale values – them’s fighting words!