For the New York Times

March 2, 2022

Midwinter on the Caribbean island of St. Barts is a kind of second hurricane season. December's annual landfall of billionaires and celebrities was a Cat 5, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Mike Tyson, the world's biggest mega-yachts, and Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend canoodling in their bathing suits.

But in the midst of this glitter cyclone, two days before Christmas, a judge hurled the latest volley in a legal battle that has pitted billionaire against billionaire, and human development against fragile nature on this playground for the one percent. The court ruled that a company headed by the American hotelier Denise Dupré must stop construction of her second luxury hotel on the island, and refill a football field-size hole, intended for an underground parking garage, on a popular but environmentally precarious beach.

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