{"id":1341430,"date":"2023-11-20T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=623239"},"modified":"2023-11-20T09:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T09:30:00","slug":"why-climate-havens-might-be-closer-to-home-than-youd-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/11\/20\/why-climate-havens-might-be-closer-to-home-than-youd-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Why \u2018climate havens\u2019 might be closer to home than you\u2019d think"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Moving is never easy \u2014 and it\u2019s even harder in the era of global warming. Beyond the usual concerns like jobs, affordability, and proximity to family and friends, people are now considering rising seas, wildfire smoke, and heat waves. According to a recent survey<\/a>, nearly a third of Americans named climate change as a motivation to move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some are headed to \u201cclimate havens,\u201d the places experts say will be relatively pleasant to live in as the world heats up, like Duluth, Minnesota; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Burlington, Vermont. Researchers have pointed to the Great Lakes region, and Michigan in particular<\/a>, as a destination for people seeking to escape the storm-ravaged Southeast or the parched Southwest. The Midwest holds special appeal with its abundant fresh water, cooler summers, and comparatively little risk from hurricanes and wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But as the federal government\u2019s comprehensive Fifth National Climate Assessment detailed last week<\/a>, there\u2019s nowhere you can truly hide from climate change. This summer, historic wildfires in Canada sent unhealthy smoke swirling into the Midwest and Northeast<\/a>, bringing apocalyptic skies from Minneapolis to Buffalo, New York, and all the supposed refuges in between. Heavy rain in July caused devastating flash floods in Vermont<\/a>. Three years earlier, a ProPublica analysis<\/a> had identified the hardest-hit place in the state, Lamoille County, as the safest county in the U.S. \u201cIt\u2019s time to put the idea of climate safe havens to rest,\u201d the climate news site Heatmap<\/a> declared this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the new assessment demonstrates that some places are safer than others. The report says that moving away from more dangerous spots to less precarious ones is a solution that\u2019s already happening<\/a> \u2014 not only in coastal areas in the Southeast, but also in flood zones in the Midwest. The assessment also makes it clear that vulnerability is often created by city planning choices. Climate havens may not be something nature hands us, but something we have to build ourselves. And finding refuge doesn\u2019t necessarily entail moving across the country; given the right preparations, it could be closer to home than you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhile the climate is going to change, how we respond as a species, as a society, as individuals, I think will really determine what is a \u2018refuge\u2019 for us and what isn’t,\u201d said Vivek Shandas, a professor at Portland State University whose research focuses on how cities can adapt to climate change. Shandas, who worked on the Northwest chapter of the report, says that it points to how human choices \u2014 policies and urban design decisions \u2014 have either put people more in harm\u2019s way or brought them greater safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n