So I’ve been out of the office for a couple of weeks, reading books by a pool, and gradually taking on a mixed red, white and brown colour scheme more usually associated with Neapolitan ice cream. Consequently, we haven’t had time to prepare a full episode, with all the guests and bells and whistles we’d normally include. Sorry about that.

We’ll be back next week. To tide you over, though, we thought we’d do a mini-episode about the place where I just spent my holidays.


Miami is a beautiful sub-tropical paradise that is, almost certainly, doomed. By the end of this century, a combination of rising sea levels and unhelpful geography will combine to make much of South Florida uninhabitable.

I discovered all this while sitting on a beach, reading articles like this one from Rolling Stone (“Goodbye, Miami”), or this from the Guardian (“Miami, the great world city, is drowning while the powers that be look away”).

There’s something quite debilitatingly horrifying to realise that you are holidaying in a place that, in your own lifetime, is probably going to die.

So, this week, as a form of therapy, Barbara and I talk about exactly why Miami is under threat – and why no one in authority seems minded to do anything about it.

You can listen to the episode below. You can also subscribe on AcastiTunes, or RSS.

We’ll be back on Friday 24th with our regular fortnightly service.  And if you have any clever plans for saving Miami or other low-lying cities, well, do write in.

Jonn Elledge is the editor of CityMetric. He is on Twitter, far too much, as @jonnelledge.

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