Climate refuge or climate haven describes a place that would be relatively more desirable due to climate change.
Most scientists do not think there are places that would not be significantly negatively impacted by climate change.
Some US cities have promoted themselves as a better long-term place to live in order to attract more residents or investment.
History
United States
In 2018, the term started to become more common fueled by people looking for hope amidst climate change and by localities that took the chance to promote themselves, particularly in the
Rust Belt
The Rust Belt, formerly the Steel Belt or Factory Belt, is an area of the United States that underwent substantial Deindustrialization, industrial decline in the late 20th century. The region is centered in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (Uni ...
.
By 2024, some real estate listings promote climate scores that estimate the level of climate risk exposure to a property.
Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene ( ) was a deadly and devastating tropical cyclone that caused widespread catastrophic damage and numerous fatalities across the Southeastern United States in late September 2024. It was the strongest hurricane on record to ...
devastating
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...
prompted the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' to publish a piece that quoted professors who were largely critical of the concept while arguing that some areas would still be relatively less costly to live in and adapt to than others even if climate change impacts all parts of the country.
See also
*
Climate migration
Climate migration is a subset of climate-related mobility that refers to movement driven by the impact of sudden or gradual climate-exacerbated disasters, such as "abnormally heavy rainfalls, prolonged droughts, desertification, environmental de ...
*
Continuously habitable zone
In astronomy and astrobiology, the habitable zone (HZ), or more precisely the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressu ...
(describes planets that could potentially become potential climate refuges after the main habitable planet becomes uninhabitable)
* (speculates the possibility of the Solar System's outer planets and moons becoming climate refuges after Earth becomes uninhabitable)
*
Great filter
The Great Filter is an idea that, in the development of life from the earliest stages of abiogenesis to reaching the highest levels of development on the Kardashev scale, there is a barrier to development that makes detectable extraterrestrial lif ...
* (describes the final climate refuges for life, even microbes, once Earth permanently becomes uninhabitable)
* {{multi-section link, Life on Titan, Future temperature (speculates Saturn's largest moon Titan as a potential climate refuge after Earth becomes uninhabitable)
*
Managed retreat
Managed retreat involves the purposeful, coordinated movement of people and buildings away from risks. This may involve the movement of a person, infrastructure (e.g., building or road), or community. It can occur in response to a variety of hazar ...
*
Space and survival
Space and survival is the idea that the long-term survival of the human species and technological civilization requires the building of a spacefaring civilization that utilizes the resources of outer space, and that not doing this might lead to ...
References
Tropes
Climate change
Climate change and society
Migration policy
Refugees
Further reading
Why these 'climate haven' cities aren’t yet ready for more extreme weather events(August 26, 2023),
PBS News
''PBS News Hour'', previously stylized as ''PBS NewsHour'', is the news division of PBS and an American daily evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS member stations since October 20, 1975. It airs seven nights a week, and i ...