There are, in fact, no refuges from climate change.
Below, Canadian wildfire smoke in Duluth, summer 2021.
A Northern Michigan environmental organization and climate activist are warning the effects of climate change are already here — and will continue to worsen unless significant changes are made.
Peter Sinclair, a Midland videographer specializing in energy and climate change, headlined the event with the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council, discussing the future of clean energy and climate in Michigan.
Sinclair drew a particular focus on Michigan’s view by many as a “climate haven,” a region of the country with access to abundant freshwater and an ecosystem that may be more resilient to temperature change. But he warned that climate change’s effects are far from remote.
“Our temperatures are rising faster and our impacts are rising faster,” Sinclair said, citingan August article from University of Michigan researchers which identified most states in the Midwest as those most susceptible to rising temperatures in the coming decades.
Sinclair pointed out catastrophic weather suffered in the last year in much of Michigan, where February ice storms knocked out power for nearly half a million residents in southeast Michigan, midsummer wildfire smoke from Canada worsened air quality for weeks and August tornadoes killed five across the Lower Peninsula.
Poor infrastructure also plays a role in Michigan’s climate future, Sinclair said. The state ranks 45th in electricity reliability and significant flooding can lead to waterborne disease outbreaks, he said.
“We’re moving into a new condition in a world where climate has changed, not changing,” he said. “The new normal is no normal. It’s going to continue to change until we stop adding more heat trapping gases to the atmosphere.”
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Aftermath of extreme rain, Duluth 2012.
I’d recommend thinking about a climate refuge as so far so good.
If life is still possible then it’s still a refuge.
Of course the number of these places will be in rapid decline as emissions build.
You have to pick your poison. In my case, I expect my target city’s biggest threat to be major rain events, so I’ll choose my house accordingly. I can be hit by power outages and washed out roads, but my personal priority is not having flood water in my house (as in the case of my parents and sisters houses from the levee failure after Katrina).