Probably, but I really might prefer not to know. I’m not moving. I’m not selling. Maybe I’ll beef up our bulkhead though.
I have my doubts that what happened in the last 50 years will be even a semi-accurate forecast of what will happen in the next 50, or even 5 years.
When people ask me why we are moving to West Virginia, I just say “Water.” Everyone gets it, because even if there always will be water for cities, the general opinion is that water is a big problem and we are running out.
I’m sticking where I’m at. We’ve got nearly unlimited fresh water (Lake Michigan-Huron at an elevation of 580 ft above MSL) right outside our house, and over 40 acres of tillable land. Rising temperatures have made recent maple syrup yields more disappointing but I can put up with that.
Be sure you’re not too close to a seasonal river. Last year the runoff from rains (influenced by climate change, definitely) caused severe flooding, road erosion, and took away some houses.
I moved from Los Angeles to Northwest Washington state, two miles from the coast. Primarily moved because it was getting too hot in Southern CA. Debated moving to Portland, but now I’m so glad we moved further north because Portland definitely gets too hot in the summer. Even here a couple of years ago we had two days of freakish heat from seemingly out of nowhere where it was 103 at 3:00am. Of course, it was not “out of nowhere,” but because of climate change.
Well. Welcome back!
Someday I will inherit my parent’s home, which is on a river. I have no desire to live there due to the risk of flooding, which is ever increasing. So climate change is already impacting our future housing decisions.
I would love to move somewhere where winter floods and summer wildfires aren’t a concern but I doubt my wife would even entertain the idea.
I expect it’s no surprise to you that the book concludes with a section on how The Great Lakes region generally will be absorbing a lot of people in the future.
how soon that future arrives will be exciting, to say the least.
How high and how fast are the lake waters rising? I’d think people would have time to run away.
the OCEANS are rising.
people will be moving to the area of The Great Lakes because of lots of fresh water (vital) and cooler temps generally than further south. also far from oceans and so forth.
hope my post was clear and also that you actually are kidding or something and I was wooshed, perhaps?
Just kidding.
There are a lot of people out there who mistakenly think climate change means the Great Lakes will also rise, based on misunderstanding how high they are above mean sea level.
It’s not clear what climate change will do to our lake levels here. They’ve been yo-yoing up and down between 576 and 582 feet here on Michigan-Huron just from 2012 to the present. Those values also reflect the record low and high levels since 1918. We’re currently at 579.
It’s possible to design buildings so that air conditioning isn’t necessary to be comfortable.
Here, for instance, is a rural school built in Burkina Faso designed to stay comfortable even in the heat, and without air conditioning.
This is true. They are rather costly and time consuming to build, but you can be perfectly comfy inside on a 90F day.
Not so much at 120F.
Right, it’s not clear what, if anything, climate change will do to Great Lakes water levels. The regional effects of climate change can induce both droughts due to not enough precipitation and floods due to too much of it. With droughts in many parts of the US I suspect the greatest threat to the Great Lakes is not climate change directly but humanity, due to increasing pressure to steal fresh water from them. It’s bad enough that natural variations sometimes produce unusually low water levels. I remember one season where instead of climbing up into a boat from a fixed dock you had to step down onto the deck. Navigation through channels that were shallow at the best of times was a pain that year.
Regulation of the Great Lakes is supposed to be through a joint US-Canada commission, but we all know how much that will matter if the US feels they have a water crisis. I worry about that.
I do too, but the Great Lakes state and provincial governors are pretty committed thus far to preserving the resource, as is the local population. Whether that’ll hold up to the demands of the nation/world when fresh water gets short, we’ll have to see.
yes, @Dewey_Finn would have been right…in the past, now and certainly in the near future, incorrect.
not only are there more 120 degree days, the “low” temps at night have gone up all over and especially in cities and REALLY especially in poor neighborhoods in cities.
anyone who doesn’t think this is true: please read the book!
Are you aware that the Saguaro cactus are starting to die of the heat?
They close their pores during the day to avoid moisture loss and then open them after it has cooled off at night to breathe. If it stays too hot at night, they slowly suffocate. These are plants that evolved to thrive in hot and arid conditions but conditions are changing too fast for them to adapt to the extreme heat they are experiencing now. Cacti Are Losing Their Arms Because It's Too Hot
And…where are the huge flocks of hummingbirds we used to get every year?
We don’t need to relocate, but the local news is full of stories about the aftermath of the Maui wildfires, one side-effect of which is that many people are moving out of Lahaina to the mainland - there just aren’t jobs and housing for them anymore. It is breaking people’s hearts to see the destruction, not just of the physical space, but of a community that was once close-knit and robust.
On the insurance front - our house, while not ocean-front, is kinda close to the water but quite elevated (I want to say 200 feet, but I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly). There is zero chance that rising sea levels will reach our house (or a tsunami for that matter). But we were shopping around for a good umbrella policy and one major insurer said they wouldn’t insure our property because they no longer offer insurance for homes as close to the water as we are. It was frustrating, because if they had a faint clue about the topography of where we are situated they would realize how ridiculous it is to reject us on that basis. But, I suppose they can’t micromanage the process - a blanket rule is simpler and more efficient.
I wouldn’t characterize that as “denial,” just high risk tolerance. You do recognize that climate change is happening. “Denial” is some folks with beachfront homes that I saw interviewed on CNN recently. The community had banded together and spent $600k to construct a sand dune barrier, which was totally washed away when a storm hit a few days after it was completed. A couple of the owners said, “nah, ‘climate change’ is a myth.” Not THAT is some grade-A denial!
Is it possible such people are planning on solar panels? We’re installing them right now, and that will be a huge step forward in our resilience/self-sufficiency in the event that something catastrophic occurs. (Of course, a hurricane could wreck them, so it ain’t perfect. But still.)
Most of the grandiose schemes for transporting Great Lakes water significant distances tend to ignore the costs/energy demand/issues with transporting said water in meaningful quantities, such as ignoring the problems of moving it uphill for thousands of miles. I’m not much worried (at this point).