Local Entrepreneur banking on climate change to support business model
Jacksonville — Climate change is a hot topic, as greenhouse gases and pollution contribute to everything from extinction of threatened species to melting of the ice caps to sea level rise. And it is the inevitable rise in ocean levels that has real estate developer Ramsay Pigeon very excited. In fact, he has built his entire business model around it.
Pigeon’s company, “New Coast Residential Developments,” was recently formed to sell to prospective investors what he calls “The Future of Seaside Property” in hilly areas around the Western New Brunswick community of Jacksonville. While currently forested and hundreds of kilometres from the coast, these plots of land, Pigeon assured The Manatee, will soon be premium waterfront property, thanks to climate change and sea level rise.
“I did some calculations, and consulted with some science students at the high school, and we all agreed that water flows downhill. So it is my plan to buy up all the hills in the area,” he explained.
Local residents who were approached by Pigeon to sell the hills lying on their properties were initially confused, but now feel that the plan has some value. “As long as the young people can still go up there with their toboggans and not get chased away, I’m fine to sell my hills,” one resident said. “Just don’t ask for my dales.”
“It is a long-term investment,” Pigeon admitted, “but with the rise in sea levels, there will be less and less land to live on. And with the population on Earth increasing, the future is going to be all seaside cottages and treehouses. Have I mentioned my Executive Treehouse business?”
Scientists believe that ocean levels will rise to levels that would reach the Jacksonville area by the year 7000.