Rating: 8
Disposable City: Miami’s Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe
Mario Alejandro Ariza | 2020
Disposable City is an honest, thorough, and terrifying account of a young man grappling with the realization that the city he loves, Miami, is under attack. Early on Mario Alejandro Ariza discusses wanting to spend his 80th birthday in Miami but that he increasingly worries it will be impossible to do so. This essentially becomes the narrative theme: how does his city, situated on the front lines of the climate crisis, make it through the end of the century? Throughout the book he meets with an impressively extensive cast of characters to deepen his understanding about how Miami is approaching these array of problems. One of the book’s major themes—a topic I’ve never heard of but, because of this book, am now deeply interested and concerned about—is that of climate gentrification. Climate change poses a unique environmental and cultural threat to the city known for its beaches, real estate, and diverse culture. As sea level rises the topography of Miami’s real estate market shifts and creates numerous problems for local communities.
Though I thought Disposable City’s direction veered off course occasionally, I found it deeply persuasive and moving for a few reasons. To start, it’s deeply personal. Ariza, an immigrant himself, brings a unique perspective to the discussion of climate migration and America’s current political agenda. He’s also a local writer and journalist who embarks on a journey to better understand what’s happening to the city he loves and how his community is preparing to handle the consequences of unmitigated industrial expansion It’s impressively researched and narratively told from his perspective, which has the nice benefit of the reader discovering things as Ariza does, instead of him coming across as a master of the subject and imparting wisdom. Lastly, it’s a great example of what I hope more books may be like in the future. Climate change is devastatingly global, but no person will ever relate to, understand, or feel what’s happening at such a large scale. Instead, every person will watch the areas most familiar to them change, whether it’s as small as warmer summers or as cataclysmic as annihilation. Ariza channels his love, terror, and resolve to share a case study for what might become an all too common scene: cities on the precipice of climate disaster bracing for impact and attempting to hold on to what’s left of its heritage.
“But it is past time for the people and their leadership to accept the science for what it is. One way or another, the very near future will force South Florida to contend with the biogeophysical reality of humanity’s carbon dioxide problem. It is time to stop building superhighways and to start cobbling together the narrow, treacherous path to survival.”
“Climate change has a nasty tendency to tear at the thinnest part of the civil fabric.”
“As I rise to leave, he adds ominously, ‘You don’t win against salt water.’”