Climate Change Will Make Parts of the U.S. Uninhabitable—Americans Are Still Moving There.
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by Lucan Waldron and Abraham Lustgarten
Instead of moving away from areas in the climate crisis, Americans are flocking to them. As land in places like Phoenix, Houston, and Miami becomes less habitable, the country’s migration patterns will be forced to change.
Over the past year, the advent of a professional economy powered by people working from home has quickened the conversation about where to live, particularly among millennials. “Is now the right time to buy property in Minnesota?” “Is Buffalo the new place to be?”
How important is proximity to freshwater? Should you risk moving somewhere that has fire seasons? How far north do you have to go to find liveable summers?
Americans have defied the norms of climate migration seen elsewhere in the world, flocking to cities like Phoenix, Houston, and Miami that face some of the greatest risks from soaring temperatures and rising sea levels.
Those patterns seem likely to change.
New data from the Rhodium Group, analyzed by ProPublica, shows that climate damage will wreak havoc on the southern third of the country, erasing more than 8% of its economic output and likely turning migration from a choice to an imperative.
The data shows that the warming climate will alter everything from how we grow food to where people can plausibly live. Ultimately, millions of people will be displaced by flooding, fires, and scorching heat, a resorting of the map not seen since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Now as then, the biggest question will be who escapes and who is left behind.
Reprinted with permission of ProPublica
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Moved to St. Petersburg 40 years ago. We bought a house in the Southestern part of the city two blocks from Tampa Bay but after 7 years of paying flood insurance premiums our agent told us we were eighteen feet above sea level which, for that area, is high. This Summer, through the influence of unscrupulous developers and corrupt, to my mind, City politicians, the city decided to open development in flood prone areas. Developers and real estate agents will be rushing to try to buy single family homes, knock them down, and build multi family units in areas that can flood right now even after Summer thunderstorms. The caveat is that the new dwellings will have to be flood proof. Yes and I have a bridge at the South end of St. Pete you can have cheap. This is a disaster waiting to happen. I may not be around to see the results but I doubt they will look good.
I lived in St. Pete many, many years ago, and I liked it. I was back for a seminar about 20 years ago, and the changes were remarkable, and not in a good way. You are correct in saying “this is a disaster waiting to happen.”
Merde a Lago is in Palm Beach which is slightly higher than Miami Beach. Maybe half a foot or so. If it goes, I go, but I’m willing to take a hit for America.
This is so weird. Mom’s youngest sister has been considering a move but to her wife’s family area in Canada, snow and cold. Boyfriend’s mom and stepdad live in Nova Scotia. Always wanted to go there after watching a Canadian show called Republic of Doyle. When I told his mom she told me it is as nice as the show says it is.
Denying climate change is as dumb as denying the gravity of Covid-19. A fool’s game is what it is.
Yabut I had to turn my heater on today, so how can there be like global warming when it is so cold here hmm, answer that mr smarty mcsmarterton 🙂
What? I thought you lived in sunny California?
Only thing warm right now at my house, my hot bathtub I just got out of and wrapped my own self up in my warm bath robe. It has been cold these last few days. Right now it is only 60 degrees, that is sweater weather for me. I need the heat to survive dammit, I am not a vampire or snake 😉
Living in the South I have watched the migration patterns of people for years and they are still showing the same stupid thinking. People in the North are still buying up property in the South and building huge subdivisions. The sad part is that most of the buyers are young people who will likely lose everything in what will be swampland with 90 degree December days with 90 percent humidity. Between the heat, hurricanes, and tornados there may be little left of anything South of the M/D line. But then, where to go? West, forest fires, and earthquakes. New England, flooding from the Atlantic to the great lakes. Maybe the aliens from some distant planet will swoop down with a solution one day.
We haven’t had an earthquake since 5:00 tonight. It was only a little teeny one, we get them on a daily basis here. It is like an old house settling 😉 The fires kinda suck balls because of the environmental impact and the animals getting displaced oh and my guy having to fight them being away from me. AYUP, it is ALL about me and my first world issues. Idiots building where they should not, then get tweaked because oh my mcmansion burned up. Native Americans should take all the land back and be in charge to fix things.
Can I believe the stories that top Republicans are buying up waterfront property on Hudson’s Bay for pennies an acre? Is there a land boom in Tucktoyucktuk? Inquiring minds want to know!
What? There is a land boom in Tucktoyucktuk? What wonderful news!
I’m not even a bit surprised by this news. After all, about half of the country voted for a lunatic.
Silver lining, he’ll be dead before all of us since he is a cheeseburger away from a stroke. Bonus, his Mar aLago resort will more than likely be under water very soon as Miami starts to feel the effects of waters rising.