The city of Miami, only 10 feet above sea level at its highest, is on the front lines of climate change, facing an existential threat as the sea inevitably rises.

High seasonal tides that already flood the city will eventually become the norm, potentially contaminating drinking water and rendering much of Miami uninhabitable.

The reinsurer Swiss Re predicts $33 billion in damage from sea-level rise and related climate changes by 2030; by 2100, some scientists believe most of Miami will be underwater.

Nevertheless, the population grows, real estate prices soar and construction cranes frame the city.

Part of it is that Florida is run by climate-change deniers such as Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio.

At the local level, it’s driven by economics more than ideology.

Developers are confident they’ll get their money out of current projects long before the worst climate change occurs.

The local government relies on property taxes to fund operations and needs the new construction and higher property values to pay for future climate- change mitigation.

Hawaii government has few climate-change deniers; local Democrats will talk your ear off about the threat.

But in terms of actual planning for what’s all but certain to come, Honolulu isn’t so different from Miami.

Construction cranes in the Waikiki-Ala Moana-Kakaako corridor fill the sky a virtual stone’s throw from the water’s edge.

The new skyscrapers were approved without major upgrades to wastewater infrastructure that failed so miserably in recent storms that flooded the area and caused a 500,000-gallon raw sewage spill right in front of the luxury condos being built at Ala Moana Center.

The city designed the $6 billion rail system to run makai through Kakaako instead of taking a more prudent mauka route along Beretania.

The economics are the same as in Miami: Developers and construction interests make their money well before future sea-level rises, and politicians are seduced by the double bounty of tax revenues and campaign contributions.

Waikiki state Rep. Tom Brower reflected the “What, me worry?” mindset when he dismissed a proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood-control project for the Ala Wai and its tributaries to protect Waikiki from an inevitable “100-year flood” that could put our tourism industry out of business.

“There’s just a lot of optimists we have in our community,” Brower blithely told Honolulu Civil Beat. “If you have a natural disaster, you’re going to probably just have to take your lumps and rebuild.”

As if there will be any revenues to pay for rebuilding after our economic engine is drowned.

How much do our leaders really differ from Florida’s Rick Scott and Marco Rubio when they acknowledge the climate challenge with their talk, but deny it with their lack of planning?

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.