The Yahoo News series looks at climate change risks in different regions of the country and how they will change in the future.
As the negative consequences of rising global temperatures due to mankind's relentless burning of fossil fuels become more apparent in communities across the United States, anxiety over finding a place to live safe from the ravages of climate change has increased.
Millions of Americans will move because of climate change through the end of the century, according to a professor. Climate is one of the many drivers and I think it is a good idea to think about that.
According to a report by the United Nations, global temperatures are on track to warm by at least 2.1 degrees Celsius by the year 2200. There will be a rise in extreme weather events. It's not easy to figure out where to ride out the coming decades.
Climate risk can be calculated by a number of factors, including luck, latitude, elevation, the upkeep of infrastructure, long-term climate patterns, and how warming ocean waters could impact the El Nio/La Nia cycles.
Climate change impacts will be severe in the continental United States and throughout the U.S. In some places they will be more severe and in other places they will be less severe. We all share the risk of the increase of extreme events, but certain places will be more moderate.
One of the most-threatened regions of the country is examined in this part.
According to a 2020 analysis published by ProPublica and the New York Times of findings provided by the Rhodium Group, 9 of the 10 worst-ranked counties in the US are in the Southeast.
The analysis included heat stress, the combination of heat and humidity, crop loss, very large fires, sea level rise and economic damages, and rated each county on the impact climate change would have on it.
Large parts of the Southeast, including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky are vulnerable to hurricanes. St. Martin Parish, Assumption Parish, Jefferson Davis Parish, Livingston Parish and St. John the Baptist Parish are all located in coastal Louisiana.
According to a study by the United States Geological Survey, the wetlands in the Mississippi River Delta disappear every hour for the last 25 years.
In part due to high wet-bulb rankings, Mississippi's Jackson County and North Carolina's Hyde County made the list of the worst places to live. A combination of poor scores on wet bulb, farm crop yields, sea level rise and potential economic losses due to climate change led to the worst ranking in the lower 48 U.S.
The destruction caused by Hurricane Ian is just one example of the extreme risks climate change has caused. While hurricanes threatened the Southeast for centuries before the advent of the internal combustion engine, decades of research have shown that rising global temperatures are making hurricanes wetter, windier, slower and able to ramp up quicker than in a pre-climate- change world.
The insurance losses from Hurricane Ian, which killed more than 100 people in Florida, are estimated to be between $53 billion and $74 billion. The National Flood Insurance Program could face an additional $10 billion in losses. There is a debate about whether residents would be better off relocating or rebuilding in a vulnerable area.
I think we've seen a conversation at a much more acute pitch and much more quickly moving in the direction of "Do not rebuild here". Don't return here. Taxpayer money shouldn't be going into this. The founder and CEO of Climate Alpha told Yahoo News that families shouldn't put their entire net worth into that place again. The change in mood is due to the fact that policymakers know they need to do something.
Even the best-case scenario of this worst-case scenario still spells destruction for the coast according to a climate scientist. Climate refugees are because of that. They are people who have been displaced because of climate change.
Sea levels in states like Florida have risen by an average of 8 inches since 1950, and are expected to rise an additional 8 to 9 inches by the end of the century due to the rapid rate of melting.
The sea is rising in Louisiana at an especially fast pace due to the fact that the ground along the coast has been sinking. Since 1950, the sea level around Grand Isle has risen 24 inches.
saltwater from the rising seas has already begun encroaching on the ground in some places, forcing utilities to rely on desalination plants to provide enough drinking water for the population Miami Beach has begun spending tax dollars to elevate roads and install water pumps as flooding due to sea level rise has become an increasingly common occurrence.
"I don't think coastal real estate within a few feet of sea level is a smart investment or even a good idea to begin with at this point." Climatecheck provides climate change risk assessments on real estate nationwide. We don't know the rate of change, but there's a 100 percent chance that sea levels will be higher in a few decades.
Climate change is not the only issue facing coastal communities. The water cycle is expected to change as temperatures continue to rise.
There will be more frequent and dangerous heatwaves due to the increased temperature. According to the U.S. Climate resilience Tooklit, extreme rain events are likely to become more frequent.
There are better and worse places to live in the country. Bristol City, Va., an independent jurisdiction located in the far western part of the state at an elevation of 1,620 feet above sea level, is ranked as the 29th safest county in the US for climate change. The top 10 safest counties in the Southeast are all in Virginia mountains.
The climate has continued to warm since the release of the New York Times/ ProPublica analysis in 2020.
Kentucky's Letcher County, which was ranked as the 11th safest in the Southeast, was hit with close to 16 inches of rain over four days. The National Weather Service said on its website that the rains caused widespread devastating impacts.
Four people were killed in Letcher County due to the flash flooding in Eastern Kentucky. Black Mountain has a peak elevation of 3,750 feet. According to computer modeling, as temperatures continue to rise, the region can expect to face even more tests as the topography was tested by extreme rain in July.
The EPA states on its website that climate change will cause more frequent and intense storms.
Understanding that rising temperatures dramatically increase the likelihood of an extreme rainfall event is different from actually experiencing such an event and may not cause a person to abandon an area altogether.
They don't just say "climate change is my only primary consideration" when they leave places that have been damaged by natural disasters. "I said that." They want to know where they can find affordable housing, where they can get a job, and where their children can go to school.
Climate change is a new factor in the equation of where to live, and one that often doesn't factor in until disaster strikes. Before Hurricane Ian hit the Gulf Coast, the Fort Myers area was the sixth-fastest-growing area in the country.
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