A ustralians Lesley and Doug McGrath have for decades battled ocean swells that have eaten away at the backyard of their multimillion-dollar Sydney home.
They bought an old beach shack on Collaroy Beach in 1976 and replaced it with a two-story home anchored to the land by 12m long piers, a concrete slab and an underground seawall of giant boulders.
Even with all that protection, the fury of the ocean has at times torn up their backyard, large chunks of prime real estate disappearing under waves. With scientists predicting a 90cm sea level rise in Sydney by 2050 because of climate change, the house itself may yet be in danger.
The McGrath home is one of an estimated 700,000 plus coastal properties in Australia alone that are threatened by rising seas.
Around the world, owners of prized seaside properties face the prospect of not just losing their homes but receiving no compensation as insurance policies may not cover climate change losses in the future.
“If you live in paradise you accept what the ocean gives and takes. We’re not worried,” Lesley McGrath said.
Her family photo album tells an amazing story of their battle against the ocean: At times, an expansive beach separates their home from the sea, and at other times, the surf is so close that photos show her son jumping into the water from the backyard.
Sea levels are widely expected to rise about 1m this century because of climate change, faster than the 18cm to 59cm outlined in a UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in 2007. And coastal communities around the world are already feeling the destructive effects of more frequent and violent ocean storms — a portent of rising seas.
CLIMATE REFUGEES
The first wave of climate change refugees have started leaving their island homes in the South Pacific as storm surges contaminate fresh water supplies and flood coastal crop lands.
“We have a feeling of anxiety, a feeling of uncertainty because we know that we will be losing our homes. It’s our identity. It’s our whole culture at stake,” says Ursula Rakova, from Carteret Island off Bougainville in Papua New Guinea.
Carteret islanders have decided to abandon their island home for the nearby and bigger Bougainville island after years of worsening storm surges and king tides infected their fresh water supplies and ruined their staple banana and taro crops.
John Vaughan is fighting in court for the right to try and save his multimillion dollar beach house.
Waves washed away 800m² of Vaughan’s beachfront land in May after a bad cyclone and storm season, wiping more than A$1 million (US$850,000) off the value of the property, real estate agents said.
Vaughan fears that if he is not allowed to build a stone seawall, his home may one day become worthless.
“I’d be on the edge of an island and washed away probably,” he said.
Sydney Coastal Councils, which represents 15 local governments, says the multimillion dollar price tags of beachfront homes are unrealistic given climate change.
“A lot of those structures have been put in place without any consideration of climate change. Private properties in coastal areas don’t reflect the risk,” said Wendy McMurdo, chairwoman of Sydney Coastal Councils.
In Australia, 711,000 homes and billions of dollars in assets and infrastructure are at risk from rising sea levels and storm surges, the climate change office said.
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