Is Your State At-Risk for Climate Change Disaster?
Unfortunately if you live in the United States, you probably think of yourself as somehow immune to climate change disaster. But you can’t survive on ego alone. In fact many US residents are at-risk for climate change’s negative effects. Far beyond just “harsh weather,” climate change could spark shortages for food and medical supplies. And the most vulnerable US states? Not doing a whole lot to prepare. So let’s take a list at who is at-risk and what that means.
There’s no way (or reason) to deny it: no one is doing enough to prepare for the devastating effects of climate change. Many parts of Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia are the most vulnerable to changing weather patters. Experts warn that climate change will soon trigger a new mass migration. And we as a world society aren’t really prepared to deal with that.
So the United States isn’t one of the most vulnerable places, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune. The US has a pretty wide variety of eco systems. And people living in more extreme or vulnerable areas could even be faced with making a decision to flee their homes at some point.
But which states are the most vulnerable? Well an organization called States at Risk released a study in 2015 identifying not only the states climate change will hit hardest, but who’s prepared and who’s probably gonna die.
The following states are 10 of the most at-risk but also most well-prepared to deal with the consequences:
California, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, North Carolina, Maryland, Washington, and Virginia.
Now I know what you’re thinking. “But what about all those jokes about California floating away? Or New York getting sucked-up by the ocean?” Well, looks like they have a pretty decent emergency plan in place. Can you say the same for your own state?
What about the most vulnerable and least prepared?
Arkansas, Texas, Nevada, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, Ohio, Montana, South Dakota, and Kentucky.
Don’t get too excited, Florida. You actually ranked most at-risk across the board, but you’re doing a so-so job at dealing with it. So you aren’t the best or worst prepared.
So what were the researchers looking for? What makes a state “at-risk” anyways? Well they ranked each state based on symptoms. Which means readers can get a real sense of how climate change will impact them personally. (Because Americans need to feel like the world revolves around them.) They looked at five symptoms: extreme heat, wildfires, summer drought, inland flooding, and coastal flooding. I live in Michigan which States at Risk says will experience more extreme heat, summer droughts and inland flooding. They should add wildfires to the list. Because last summer the extreme heat coupled with drought created spontaneous wildfires. All 50 states are at-risk for extreme heat by-the-way.
But there’s other ways climate change disaster can make our lives hell. Experts worry that the US food system is actually very vulnerable to climate change. Which they’ve grossly underestimated. So people fleeing their homes won’t even have any food to eat! Okay I realize that’s a little drastic. But a food shortage is coming. Which means the cost of food could sky rocket as the environment changes.
And that’s not all. Even if your home survives and you grow your own food, climate change could still kill your health. Children, elderly, and of course the poor are most at-risk. A warmer climate increases the spread of disease and the poor air quality doesn’t help. Warmer weather could also mean new diseases springing up in strange places. Look at how West Nile virus and Zika spread. Climate change can (and will) trigger more diseases to spread this way.
You can start preparing by checking out your state’s ranking here.
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Randi Nord lives in Pontiac, Michigan. She is a journalist for the The Fifth Column, co-founder of Geopolitics Alert, and co-hosts a podcast about geopolitics.