The Climate Crisis Choice - Move Or Be Moved

Climate change will destroy communities. Let’s help them move now.

Shanelle Loren, January 26, 2021 (Grist)

“…[Even if the Paris Climate Agreement] targets are met — and most countries are far from hitting them — the world will still likely be headed for a 3°C global temperature rise. In the coming decades many of our beloved coastal cities may be wiped off the map. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned earlier this year that the world must get ready for the displacement of millions of people. At this late hour, those preparations must include helping people move before disaster strikes…A growing number of scientists are calling for planned relocation (also known as “managed retreat”) as part of the U.S. government’s strategy to tackle climate disruption…

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…[T]he current default — rebuilding in disaster-stricken areas — could eventually prove more costly than relocation. This is already evident in the American West, where the cost to rebuild after wildfire devastation in three of the last four years has exceeded $10 billion per year…There are no easy solutions — certainly not for large, vulnerable cities that could eventually see millions of residents displaced…[But planning] should happen before major disaster strikes. When huge swaths of cities are submerged and homes and livelihoods are lost, people won’t be able to bootstrap themselves out of the disaster…Nobody likes moving, especially not in a disastrous rush.” click here for more

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