Beware of coastal property owners.
According to a new analysis published this week by the research nonprofit Climate Central, over 4.5 million acres of land and 650,000 individual properties will be below sea level by the year 2050.
Climate change has caused a lot of lost land and money.
Don Bain, the senior adviser at Climate Central who led the study, told The Washington Post that tide lines are moving up and down. People haven't realized that they're going to have something taken away from them by the sea.
Louisiana is the most vulnerable state in the US. The Climate Central's models show that over 25,000 properties could be submerged in the state by the year 2050.
Isle de Jean Charles, which is located off the coast of South Louisiana, is 98 percent underwater.
The research doesn't just address how much land will be lost, it also addresses the potential ramifications of that loss.
By the century's end, affected land assets could be worth at least $108 billion.
Diminished property values and a smaller tax base can lead to lower tax revenues and reduced public services.
Local governments will have less money to invest if tax revenue goes down.
The researchers are still hopeful. Humans will most likely need to adapt to rising sea levels.
Bain told the paper that if we get our act together, we can get to a lower curve. We don't want the sea to rise so quickly that we can't adapt.
Within decades, millions of U.S. acres could be swallowed by rising seas.
Scientists believe that the ice cap of Greenland will melt and cause major sea-level rise.
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