Can we move them to Aspen (elevation 7,890’) for sanctuary? And will they bring along Ron DeSantis to transform that hell hole of liberalism?
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lacking any genuwine black people, these Aspen residents made do
One Daniel Alan Cohen, an associate sociology professor at — where else? — Berkeley, has stirred the 24-hour news cycle by advocating for the complete evacuation of Miami.
The Miami-Dade County government has some clever mapping tools to help people visualize the impending climate risks—rising seas, swelling groundwater, flooded buildings. But too much detail can distract from the bigger picture: Miami is drowning.
In 2020, a report from the climate think tank Resources for the Future declared Miami the most vulnerable major coastal city in the world.
Of course, the city’s future is uncertain—we don’t know quite how much sea-level rise we can still prevent or how well we’ll adapt in place. When I visited a few years ago to talk with people about climate change, many told me that they were sick of outsiders parachuting in to tell them they’re screwed. I get that. And yet in the coming decades, many of the county’s 2.6 million residents will leave. Maybe most of them.
Preparing for Miami’s evacuation would help them immeasurably. Just as important, it would force municipalities across the United States to get serious about hosting climate migrants in egalitarian ways.
Climate conversations about moving out of harm’s way often use the concept of “managed retreat.” People debate how to help communities stay or leave and how governments should buy out groups of vulnerable homeowners. Sometimes tenants get a mention. But the bigger challenge is managed arrival: building huge quantities of green, climate-friendly housing in existing urban and suburban spaces while reconstructing communities to feel even more like home.
The scale will be vast. Matt Hauer, a climate demographer at Florida State University, has shown that millions of Americans will be displaced by rising seas this century, largely from South Florida. Millions already live in areas threatened by wildfire. Even more face a future of unimaginable heat and drought. And worldwide, countless people will flee a “catastrophic convergence” of violence, poverty, and climate change. Much of that can be traced to American imperialism and carbon. In the US, we should aspire to resettle tens of millions of climate migrants in the coming decades.
I’m sure I’m not alone in never having heard of Mr. Cohen nor, I hope, will we hear from him again, but the worst, looniest centralized-government proposals have shown an unsettling tendency of moving from fringe to mainstream in the past few decades, and that shift is increasing.
David Strom, the author of the Hot Air column I’ve linked to above, has looked into the “think tank” cited by Cohen to support his thesis, and he lists some of the sources of the big money flowing into their coffers, money that supports fear-porn propaganda like Cohen’s. What’s “fringe” today may very well be official government policy tomorrow.
Government and Other Organizations
Breakthrough Energy
Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy
Climate Change Commission
Economic Research Service (USDA)
Environmental Defense Fund
Georgetown Climate Center
International Energy Forum
Mistra
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA)
National Science Foundation
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth
United States Department of Energy
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Forest Service (USDA)
University of Pennsylvania
University of Virginia
The Wilderness Society
Foundations
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Arnold Ventures
The Barr Foundation
Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust
ClimateWorks Foundation
The Energy Foundation
The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation
Generation Foundation
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Heising-Simons Foundation
John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Linden Trust for Conservation
The Oak Foundation
Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
Sall Family Foundation
Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust
Schmidt Futures
Smith Richardson Foundation
Stand Together Trust
Waverley Street Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett FoundationGovernment and Other Organizations
Breakthrough Energy
Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy
Climate Change Commission
Economic Research Service (USDA)
Environmental Defense Fund
Georgetown Climate Center
International Energy Forum
Mistra
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA)
National Science Foundation
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth
United States Department of Energy
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Forest Service (USDA)
University of Pennsylvania
University of Virginia
The Wilderness Society
Foundations
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Arnold Ventures
The Barr Foundation
Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust
ClimateWorks Foundation
The Energy Foundation
The G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation
Generation Foundation
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Heising-Simons Foundation
John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Linden Trust for Conservation
The Oak Foundation
Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
Sall Family Foundation
Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust
Schmidt Futures
Smith Richardson Foundation
Stand Together Trust
Waverley Street Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
