Are You Prepared for a Climate Hellscape?

Most people aren’t adequately prepared for the ravages of climate change. Preparing is wise. Considering where you’re going to live is wise too.

What I read: “Record-breaking, widespread and stubborn heat wave to blanket U.S. this week” by Andrew Freedman for Axios. Published June 16, 2024.

Yesterday, while I was hanging out with friends at a bar in their outdoor patio amid a sunny comfortable 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the topic came up of people we knew who had recently moved to San Francisco. Some of those people moving to our city had mentioned the weather as one of their reasons for choosing San Francisco.

Among the things we discussed was how weather is going to drive an increased population to San Francisco and other cities where extreme heat, horrific storms, wildfires, and flooding are predicted to be far less severe in the future than in many other major urban areas.

Some of us in the discussion circle had read reports like those in the article by Andrew Freedman. My social circle tends to be a well-informed bunch. They read. They follow the news, including science news. There’s not a single climate change denier among them to the best of my knowledge. Many of them were rightfully alarmed by the reports about this week’s dangerous heat wave in the United States.

By Sunday, 268 million people in the U.S. are forecast to see air temperatures reach or exceed 90°F, with many of them experiencing heat indices at or above 100°F.

I believe that going forward weather is going to become one of the primary decision points regarding where people will live. It will influence moving patterns. I'm already seeing discussions about moving taking place among people who can afford to leave areas of the country in the path of these weather events happening now and projected into the future.

Here's the rub though. People who can afford to move. Many can't. That's going to be a problem. Entire areas will end up populated with a large percentage of low-income people and we know what happens to low-income areas. They get ignored because money too often drives action.

I don't think there's a good fix for this. My only suggestion is for people to start thinking about this now. Do you really want to live in an area that's going to be plagued by extreme heat for the rest of your life? Do you really want to live in an area that will be continually pummeled by hurricanes and severe storms? Do you really want to live in an area that will ultimately be constantly flooded or disappear entirely because of sea level rise and storm surges?

Perhaps if lower-income people think about this now, they can make a suitable long-term plan to move strategically. People with money can likely move relatively quickly when they want to, but delaying a move could be costly in the long run.

I'm not naive enough to believe that any area of our country or the world will escape the ramifications of climate change, but pragmatically I know we're going to have to individually and collectively adapt to a world that's already heading for a dire climate hellscape.

I haven’t written much about it in this newsletter yet, but on social media I've frequently recommended the book How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide to Surviving the Chaos (paid link) by David Pogue. It's a long and at times dry slog of a book, but if you take even some of its advice and translate it into action, you'll be far better prepared than most people for what's to come.

Even in a relatively safer city like San Francisco when it comes to climate change, I’m still preparing. Something could easily happen that requires me to suddenly relocate. Disasters happen, everywhere. Such planning seems prudent. At a minimum, people who create a personal disaster preparedness plan will have implemented plans that may make surviving a disaster easier, and perhaps even save a life.

In my state of California, a great resource is Listos California. Listos provides information and resources to help Californians prepare for major disasters of all types. Their “Disaster Ready Guide” is available in multiple language and is especially useful.

On a national level, Ready is a great disaster preparedness resource. Ready is a national public service campaign designed to educate and empower the American people to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate emergencies and disasters. The goal of the campaign is to promote preparedness through public involvement. They provide some great detailed plans on how to prepare.

Preparedness is wise. Having a disaster readiness plan is smart. But, if you’re in the path of what’s likely to be some rather horrific and increasingly extreme weather outcomes going forward, maybe it’s time to start thinking about whether you want to choose to continue to live where you live. It’s at least worth thinking about sooner than later.

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