Many coastal city officials are considering spending millions – in some cases billions – of taxpayer dollars preparing for an impending flood caused by rising sea levels. For example, in 2013, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a $20 billion, 20-year plan to protect the city from rising sea levels.

The concerns are being driven in part by recent studies predicting the coming floods, such as two new reports that claim that seas are rising faster than at any other point in the last 28 centuries.