Climate change issues to plan for
Climate change is here
Issue #1 Population relocation
There will be two primary factors that cause large segments of our population to move. The first is the rise in the sea levels in our coastal cities. According to the National oceanic and atmospheric administration states that the sea level is rising about 1/8 of an inch per year. This rise is getting higher each year. 40% of the population lives in highly populated and dense areas where sea levels and storm surges have a major impact. So these areas will have more flooding in the future, saltier groundwater, and housing that may become worthless due to storms and flooding.
The rise in temperature combined with the availability of clean water could make the Southwestern US almost uninhabitable. The northwestern US is drying out at an alarming rate and burning up because of the effects of climate change. USA Today states that the fire season started sooner and is outpacing past fire seasons.
Because of these and other effects related to climate change the best inhabitable parts of the country and the world may be changing over time. We can either start planning for this now and manage it or we can wait and let the problems be resolved by warring entities.
Issue #2 water
Water will become the new oil. Making sure that we have water in the right places at the right time will become more important each year. Where precipitation falls in the US and around the world will determine where people can comfortably live and how many each area will support.
We are seeing decreasing precipitation and rising populations throughout the US and the world. Within 50 years we could see our freshwater supply reduced by 1/3. 96 of 204 water basins will face shortages within the next 50 years according to a National Geographic article in Science news.
This year in the western US the key reservoirs that provide water to Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles are at extremely low levels because of the changes that have already occurred.
So one of the water risks is simply the availability of water where the population wants to live. Climate change is disrupting our weather patterns and creating extreme weather events. This leads to unpredictable water availability. In the west, we have had our dry years in the past but have been able to count on years to fix it in the future. The unpredictability of climate change makes it nearly impossible to predict whether or when our reservoirs will be replenished.
A second water-related risk is the risk of contamination. Along the coasts as sea levels rise we are seeing more freshwater become salty. Also pathogens in the water increase as the water temperature rises.
A third area is water vulnerability. Farmers rely on water being available when they need to water their crops. No crops equal no food to feed us as we are accustomed to.
A fourth water-related concern is the climate-related disasters related to severe storm events, flooding, and simple sanitation.
We as a nation and the world are going to have to find solutions that will ensure that the water is made available where it is needed. We are going to have to learn how to remove salt from saline water to create freshwater everywhere it is needed.
More importantly, a new era of who has the water right has to emerge. The eastern US has too much water and the western US has too little. We are going to have to figure out how to move water around like we are moving oil to survive.
