Michael Barnard
1 min readDec 29, 2023

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That some cities are going to be abandoned, but that the ones that invest in trees and complete streets, and aren't built in completely stupid places with dead end industries will be fine.

Houston is screwed because a quarter of their GDP is oil and gas and they have built massive numbers of buildings and homes on flood plains in an era of climate fueled precipitation and hurricanes.

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/10/02/houston-wants-feds-to-waste-billions-on-dike-to-protect-it-from-climate-change/

Phoenix is screwed because they won't have any water and will have wet bulb temperatures that make working outside in the day for much of the summer impossible.

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/10/28/car-dominated-urban-sprawl-will-become-irrelevant-urban-blight/

Miami is screwed because 50% of the population lives within 2 meters of sea level on sponge like limestone, 50% of the state's GDP is associated with beaches that are being ripped away by sea level rise and increased hurricane intensity and size, and their clean water supply is being screwed by sea level rise and Superfund sites.

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/09/18/miamis-existence-is-threatened-with-as-little-as-18-of-sea-level-rise/

New York is a very rich city with a relatively short coast line that gets the tail ends of hurricanes. By comparison, it's easy to protect. Miami, Phoenix and Houston are going to be forced to retreat, and it won't be planned.

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/06/11/canada-takes-necessary-step-with-climate-planned-retreat-guide-for-leaders/

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Michael Barnard
Michael Barnard

Written by Michael Barnard

Climate futurist and advisor. Founder TFIE. Advisor FLIMAX. Podcast Redefining Energy - Tech.

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