Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 30

FBO MATTERS
AUTHOR Douglas Wilson

Climate Change
and Airports

What will climate change mean for
low-lying airports?

AS 2019 ended, reports from both Climate Central
and Nature portrayed what appears to be an
alarming yet growing trend: The climate change
models have been wrong, the news is far worse than
imagined, and the changes are coming far sooner
than thought.
The goal of the Paris Climate
Agreement, from which the United
States exited Nov. 4, is to keep global
temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial levels, or 3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit. Studies suggest 2 degrees
Celsius is the tipping point, or point of
no return for the planet from which the
result is warmer temperatures, melting ice,
rising sea levels and a changing biosphere.
(Alaska, Rhode Island and New Jersey
have already reached that tipping point
incidentally). By 2050, sea level rise will
be visually noticeable to the 300 million
people who will be displaced from their
homes in coastal cities worldwide. To
give a sense of how many people that is,
population of the US today is around 330
million people.
Sadly, it may be too little, too late.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DOUGLAS WILSON

Douglas Wilson is the president and
founder of FBO Partners, LLC, an aviation
consultancy providing business management advisory services to Fixed Base Operations (FBOs.). Wilson can be reached
at douglas.wilson@fbopartners.com

July of 2019 was the hottest month in
recorded human history. 2019 itself
was the second hottest year in recorded
history, second only to 2016. The past 5
years have been the warmest recorded.
Australia, engulfed in f lames for weeks,
may still be on fire by the time you read
this. And, according to the World Bank,
nearly 40 percent of the city of Jakarta
will be f looded by changing weather
patterns and sea level rise by 2030. That's
only 10 years from now.
While CO2 emissions from the
global aviation industry (2 percent)
accounts for far less than the fashion
industry- who curiously are responsible
for some 10 percent of global CO2
emissions- assignment of percentage
causation is meaningless after the tipping
point. While coastal cities worldwide will
be the first to feel the effects (and already
do in some cases), a review of SkyVector.
com finds coastal cities in the U.S. are
home to more than 450 airports and
heliports with average field elevations
below 10' Mean Sea Level (MSL). Some
150 of those airports are below 5' MSL.
How might those airports prepare?
And what might lessees of those lowlying airports consider? Low lying
airports and their lessees can begin by

30 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020

planning to abandon their airport in the
coming decades and incorporating leasing
practices and provisions that acknowledge
the reality of the situation. Yes, you read
that right. It's time to start thinking about
hospice care for at-risk airports. While
the end of that 35-year lease term you're
about to sign in an airport may seem
distant, if your coastal airport is below
5' MSL, it may be completely erased by
the ocean by that time or will be subject
to regular flooding rendering it unusable
before the expiration of the lease term.
As humans, our tendency is to rebuild
after natural disasters, without ever asking
the harder question: "Should we rebuild?"
Perhaps the fairy tale of the three pigs is
so engrained in us as children, we believe
that as adults, if we just use stronger
building materials, we'll eventually foil
the plans of the big bad wolf. This time,
bricks won't matter- especially when the
insurance market is already starting to
deem them uninsurable. So, what might
hospice care for low-lying airports look
like instead?
First, the FAA needs to acknowledge



Airport_Business_February-March_2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Airport_Business_February-March_2020

Delta's New Bite Into the Big Apple
A Bright New Future in Digital Signage
What's in Your Bag?
Safety From the Ground Up
Climate Change and Airports
LED Industrial Lighting Enhances Safety & Operational Efficiency
Water Storage System Design
More Airports Embrace Audiovisual Experiences
Inside the Fence
Industry Update
Product Focus
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 1
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 2
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 3
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 4
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 5
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - Inside the Fence
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 7
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - Industry Update
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 9
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 10
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 11
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - A Bright New Future in Digital Signage
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 13
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 14
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 15
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - What's in Your Bag?
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 17
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 18
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 19
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - Delta's New Bite Into the Big Apple
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 21
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 22
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 23
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 24
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 25
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - Safety From the Ground Up
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 27
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 28
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 29
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - Climate Change and Airports
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 31
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - LED Industrial Lighting Enhances Safety & Operational Efficiency
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 33
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - Product Focus
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 35
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - Water Storage System Design
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 37
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 38
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 39
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - More Airports Embrace Audiovisual Experiences
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 41
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 42
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 43
Airport_Business_February-March_2020 - 44
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