The Climate Crisis Will Create Two Classes: Those Who Can Flee, & Those Who Cannot
'The climate crisis will create two classes: those who can flee, and those who cannot.' By Peter Gleick, Opinion, The Guardian.
- Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in low coastal zones vulnerable to sea-level rise and coastal storms. That number could reach a billion by 2050. -
A few years ago, after I gave a talk on water and climate change, I had an Arizona rancher come up and ask me if there would be enough water in the future for their livestock or if they should sell out and move north. This week, I received an email from a retiring doctor, who, acknowledging both their privileged economic situation and the personal nature of the decision, nevertheless asked if it “would it be more advantageous/safe to consider moving to coastal Oregon or Washington, rather than staying in southern California” because of rising seas, extreme heat and the growing threat of wildfires.
At an Independence Day party this weekend, a couple asked me if they should move from Colorado to Michigan because of growing drought and water shortages in the western US. I get these questions regularly and am both encouraged and dismayed by them. Encouraged because it suggests that the message about climate risks is finally getting out and people are beginning to reflect on the personal implications of those risks.
Dismayed by the realization that the climate crisis is going to produce two classes of refugees: those with the freedom and financial resources to try, for a while at least, to flee from growing threats in advance, and those who will be left behind to suffer the consequences in the form of illness, death and destruction.
And I can’t answer them. Decisions about where to live, when we’re lucky enough to have the ability to choose, are deeply personal – a function of family, friends, jobs, wealth and idiosyncratic preferences about community, health, environment and yes, climate and weather. But, from the point of view of a scientist, certain facts about our changing environment are now glaringly unambiguous. Sea levels are rising and risks from coastal flooding and storms – already extremely high in some places – are growing fast...
Continued,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/07/global-heating-climate-crisis-heat-two-classes
= new reply since forum marked as read
Are only exacerbating the decline of the ecosystem to which you have run. It's fragile environment, past the tipping point already and probably going to crash in the next few years, so better rethink that one.
There is no place safe for tourism anymore because all the human activity has transformed the wild into some human infused playground that is extremely temporary and losing its wild inhabitants in droves. Without the wildlife, the wild land cannot exist. Once humans inhabit such places, they soon lose their ability to remain healthy for the other species.
I have lived in the Rockies for decades and am now considering leaving because I don't want to be caught in the ecosystem crash, I don't know where to go but I can't stay here.
only because of safety (plentiful, clean water)... and also because of the real estate craziness, I can't afford to move... but, I do say that one day people will be begging for my modest, meager property... it doesn't make me feel good 
