If considering that option, remember that climate change will affect the destination as well -- don't emigrate to a place that will be underwater or a desert in 10 years.
If considering that option, remember that climate change will affect the destination as well -- don't emigrate to a place that will be underwater or a desert in 10 years.
I'm not a climate scientist, but I'm curious after these comments if there is some way to know what changes will happen where. I know there are some obvious assumptions like coastal areas are likely to be underwater, but how can we know if e.g., South Dakota will be a frozen tundra or desert?
Apologies if that is a dumb questions. I am not knowledgeable on this subject.
Before moving to another area, it should be considered that the support system of employment, friends and family that we take for granted and that we depend on are things we would be leaving. So weigh options carefully.
Shellenberger's new book Apocalypse Never has been a comforting read in this regard. Despite the provocative title, he's a serious environmentalist and does not argue for "no action" but rather that many of the actions being pursued by NGOs and groups like XR are very short term oriented and not thinking about the big picture of second order effects. In particular, he argues that the key to saving the environment lies in doing things like deploying natural gas and nuclear power into Africa and South America to develop those economies as quickly as possible— that this is the route to stemming coal usage and hitting the world population cap sooner rather than later, and those are the two most important factors when it comes to ultimately controlling emissions.
I wonder how much of the US defense budget could be deployed to providing nuclear power to newly industrializing countries and what the long-term ROI would be re; staving off future climate refugee issues.