There Are No Climate Havens

There’s been something of a move away from Florida for a certain kind of retiree who wants to live in a nice place (what that ever had to do with Florida, I have no idea) but were scared of climate change. One area where they have moved is Asheville, which is a nice place, to be fair. But part of it was the idea that it was a “climate haven.” This I do not understand. First, there are no climate havens. It doesn’t work that way. The actions of humans–a species intelligent enough to transform the world but too stupid to manage those transformations–will come from all of us in some way no matter where we live. But second, this is Appalachia, a wet land of creeks in narrow valleys with steep slopes. Do you want what happens when it rains a lot on narrow valleys with steep slopes? The creeks rise. I mean, there’s a whole genre of folk songs about floods in Appalachia! So this entire framing is just complete nonsense. Unfortunately, a lot of people found out about this recently.