The sprawling Florida mansion sits in one of the most vulnerable places in the US to climate-driven disasters
A sprawling Florida mansion set beside a powdery white sand beach overlooking the azure Gulf of Mexico is currently the most expensive property listed for sale in the United States, yours for a mere $295m. It is also in one of the most vulnerable places in the country to climate-driven disasters and faces an almost inevitable flooding event in the coming years. The nine-acre gated retreat in Naples – styled as “Florida’s most exclusive compound” and complete with two vast guest houses, a dock, a yacht berth and facing water on three sides – stands as an extravagant symbol of how the desire for a balmy Florida lifestyle is colliding with the climate crisis. “It’s almost a certainty this property will experience a flood,” said Jeremy Porter, climate risk researcher at First Street Foundation, a non-profit flood analysis group. According to First Street modeling, the $295m Gordon Pointe property has a 68% risk of flooding in the next 15 years and an almost guaranteed 95% chance of a flood over the next three decades. Its flood exposure is “severe” and its risk from winds is “extreme” according to climate threat ratings that now appear on Zillow property listings. “It is a beautiful area, people here want access to the water and the beaches but it’s extremely exposed to flooding,” Porter said. “These are basically properties built on water.” The pricey Gordon Pointe enclave sits at the tip of the exclusive Naples neighborhood of Port Royal, which consists of low-lying, thin fingers of land carved by canals that dangle from the southern end of the city. Mangroves, marshes and protective sand dunes have been swept aside here so multimillion-dollar developments can sit as close as possible to the sea, which is 6in higher than it was in the 1990s and is accelerating upwards due to the burning of fossil fuels.
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Somebody's taking the piss. One direct hit by a hurricane and that place is gone.
On the other hand, it would be kind of poetic justice, seeing the property of the rich destroyed by their own greed, i.e. the climate crisis they, more than anybody else, caused.








