Resilience Gentrification: Environmental Privilege in an Age of Coastal Climate Disasters

Abstract

Climate change is exacerbating storms at the same time that humans are increasingly settling in areas most affected by such storms. In theory, post-disaster recovery offers opportunities to rebuild for sustainable development. However, in reality, responses to climate events often result in greater inequality through a process we term resilience gentrification. Three possible resolutions to the coastal resilience dialectic are managed retreat, denial, and structural mitigation. Structural mitigation has become the most popular response in the Anthropocene. This response raises the cost of coastal redevelopment, giving capital greater access and control over development decisions. These changes make coastal areas more expensive and more exclusive. We illustrate this process in the post-disaster recovery of two very different communities: Gowanus, Brooklyn and the Caribbean island of Barbuda. In both cases, attempts to build it back “green”—using selective aspects of “sustainable development” as a guide—come at the cost of exacerbating existing housing inequality. In this way, “resilience” gets equated with wealth, thus reinforcing a cycle of climate injustice. To achieve a “just sustainability,” government responses must consider and address the equity impacts of climate change resilience policies. Managed retreat and degrowth strategies for climate resilience offer greater potential for a just sustainability in the Anthropocene.

Reframing Urban Nature-Based Solutions Through Perspectives of Environmental Justice and Privilege

“…The result, however, is an appropriation and protection of EP and an extension of green injustices. Gould and Lewis (2021) identify similar processes in their analysis of post-disaster recovery in Brooklyn after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and on Barbuda after Hurricane Irma in 2017. On both occasions, reconstruction focused on improving the resilience of luxury buildings, attracting wealthy renters, and rising construction costs were covered through increased prices.…”

“…Despite these important considerations, EP has yet to enter the discourse around NbS. However, some studies mention EP in relation to urban greening efforts more generally Argüelles, 2021), while others refer to privilege implicitly (Anguelovski et al, 2016;Gould & Lewis, 2021;Shokry et al, 2020). One prominent concept is the differentiation between sites or acts of commission and omission (Anguelovski et al, 2016).…”

Rethinking disaster utopia: the limits of conspicuous resilience for community‐based recovery and adaptation

“…395–396) address this problem through the concept of environmental privilege , described as ‘the ways in which many well‐heeled communities are able to protect their populations and ecosystems from numerous environmental health risks through policies and practices designed to preserve bodies and landscapes that are more highly valued by those with greater social capital and political power’. This can lead to ‘resilience gentrification’ that deepens existing social and spatial inequities in the name of rebuilding for sustainability (Anguelovski et al, 2021; Gould and Lewis, 2021).…”

Cap. 9. Efectos costeros. En: La Quinta Evaluación Nacional del Clima

“…El aumento constante de los precios de los seguros contra inundaciones reduce la asequibilidad de las viviendas en las regiones costeras, y muchos herederos y propietarios con ingresos bajos y moderados no pueden pagar un seguro contra inundaciones (KM 16.1, 21.5) 97,98 . Aparte de la asequibilidad de la vivienda, efectos en cascada como la gentrificación climática -cuando residentes acomodados se trasladan a zonas de bajos ingresos menos expuestas a riesgos climáticos, desplazando a los residentes anteriores 99,100,101 -y la falta de mano de obra seguirán impactando la cultura, la diversidad y la productividad económica de las zonas costeras 99,102,103,104 .…”