Ask HN: Where are you moving to, due to climate emergency?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28636841

10 23 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

It's possibly your decisoin to move might not be solely or even primarily due to the climate emergency (becoming some type of expected climate refugee), but if it's part of your decision-making process, where are you headed to, and what is your reasoning?

AnimalMuppet• 5 years ago

I live in Salt Lake City. It's got some problems. It sits in a valley, where all the pollution accumulates. It doesn't get enough rain. It can't grow enough food for the people who live here.

The last one is perhaps the worst. In a societal breakdown, this place will be in serious trouble on food. So one criterion for me is that it gets enough rain that it can grow enough food to feed everyone in the area.

Am I expecting societal breakdown in my lifetime? No. But if I'm going to move, I want to move to a place that's better able to deal with it if it comes.

mastazi3• 5 years ago

We (me and my SO) are saving and planning to move out of the city, to a piece of rural land that has its own water source and where we can grow most of the food we eat.

This should happen in a couple of years, once our daughter will be old enough to get a licence and drive to the city if she wants; we don't want her to be cut off from her network of friends.

Climate change is not the only reason why we are doing this but it's part of the list of "risk factors" that in our opinion made it a bad idea to keep living in a city.

We are in Sydney NSW, Australia and we will move to rural NSW.

Climate related factors that we considered in terms of the new location are: no low lying coastal areas, no areas located in a flood plain, no areas close to dense woodlands in order to lower fire risk.

Gustomaximus2• 5 years ago

I did similar but more for lifestyle reasons. We moved Sydney to Brisbane so we could stay in reasonable range to a major city, we are ~1hr to the CBD. If you want to stay close to Sydney look at land behind central coast if not already, that is quite nice. We did that but were a couple years late to the price boom there so our land size expectation didn't meet the budget we had once we went property hunting.

While not reason for moving we did discuss climate change as choice factor. While lots of variables and Brisbane being a couple degrees warmer on average was a factor, though we felt its generally a more stable temperature range and doesn't get the peaks of Sydney so may become more like Cairns type thing going forward, still liveable with temp raises and hopefully not huge peaks inland rural gets. Also being near the coast is an advantage for stability. Humidity is a downside and we'll likely see cyclones coming further south but Id prefer that and rainfall than moving to rural NSW that will likely experience increased droughts vs here.

For the network of friends, obviously you want to keep that but we notice how farm life makes us much more a family unit in comparison to city life where there is more options and people. And for us the local rural community has become a great network. We make a conscious effort (as well as enjoy it) to entertain, organise events and help people out to build on this.

Regarding 'grow most of the food we eat' at the risk of telling you what you know, be aware this is a huge time sink. If you are both working + kids this will be difficult. You will also need heaps of water. A small creek, couple of regular dams or household tanks probably wont cut it. Make sure water is in over-abundance or you can add a bunch of storage/bore etc some way. Also be prepared for looking after the property to take over your life, especially if you are planning for livestock vs a bush block.

Overall we are very happy with having done the move. Even if work or other forced us back to the city I would be glad to have had the experience.

Good luck finding your tree change!

mastazi3• 5 years ago

I did similar but more for lifestyle reasons.

I should have added, lifestyle is a big one for us too.

We looked north of Central Coast but also other regions. We are thinking to be a bit more elastic and a commute of 1.5 or 2h would still be acceptable.

This is a change that me and my wife want, but our daughter who is still a teenager shouldn't be forced to give up her friendships so that's a factor. As I said she will be able to drive by the time we move. And I anticipate in a few more years she might want to move out to attend uni etc.

Me and my wife both grew up on farms (I grew up on a farm in Italy that had vineyards, olives and eggs production, my wife in Thailand had rice, meat chickens and egg ducks), we know what it entails, and that it's hard and that it's going to be a huge time sink, but we still want it :-)

I agree with you re: source of water on property, that is the main factor we are considering when selecting the property.

Good luck with everything! I know several people who moved from Sydney to South QLD they are all very happy!

cutthegrass2• 5 years ago

I have family in Australia (NSW and Queensland) who are becoming increasingly concerned with the habitability of Australia over the coming decades. Have you given much thought to this / do you have any practical advice besides emigration?

jgmasters• 5 years ago

Near the coast or another body of water, but obviously not where that will be submerged, and not where the humidity is too high and violent storms too prevalent. One thing that climate change will make worse is heat, and being near a body of water would keep the temperature at a relatively steady level. Also hopefully there will be adequate sun and wind for solar panels and windmills. I have already scoped out many such locations in Australia and New Zealand.

PaulHoule• 5 years ago

I live on a farm outside Ithaca, ny and was talking to some young people who studied ecology in school and they all agree that upstate NY should be a lot more resilient than most places.

Our water supply is expected to be more bunched in time, but at least we expect to still get water. A slightly longer growing season and ability to grow less hardy plants should make up for some things we lose.

eucryphia• 5 years ago

I've got a pile of cash in insurance stocks heavily into global warming insurance, hope to cash out early. I've got my eye on a nice villa in Tuscany with a pool, a short helicopter jump from Florence airport.

runawaybottle3• 5 years ago

Pretty much away from the coasts and inland. It all seems a little while off, but would suck to be on the coasts during climate change infused hurricane season. The coasts barely handle it now.

dragonwriter2• 5 years ago

Pretty much away from the coasts and inland. It all seems a little while off, but would suck to be on the coasts during climate change infused hurricane season. The coasts barely handle it now.

Well, the East (and especially Southeast) Coast of the US has a problem with hurricane season.

The West Coast has problems, but hurricane season rarely registers among them.

runawaybottle3• 5 years ago

Sure, but most likely you guys will deal with droughts.

mrfusion2• 5 years ago

It’s an emergency? How much time do I have? Are we talking days or weeks?

ragingrobot• 5 years ago

Thanks for the laugh :) Seriously, I see a lot of people thinking like this as the headline give the impression: this is something that's going to happen overnight.

I blame the media. When the press release came out about the Gulf Stream, several media personalities, including the weather reporter at CBS News in NY made a statement like "Remember 'The Day After Tomorrow'? That's what we're looking at," regardless of how many scientists have stated that is not the case.

mrfusion2• 5 years ago

Indeed. I actually support fixing the climate but I think the media being dishonest/over alarmist about it is actually counterproductive.

ploika• 5 years ago

I'm based in Dublin city, currently trying to buy a home somewhere that lets me live as car-free an existence as possible.

I'm avoiding reclaimed land and low-lying areas (of which there is a lot in the city), because they're probably going to flood more regularly, and getting flooded is awful.

I'm not going to move to the countryside because (for my lifestyle at least) living in a fairly dense urban area is much more environmentally friendly than buying a one-off house in the countryside, driving everywhere, and getting stuff (water, electricity, online shopping etc) delivered relatively long distances out to me.

I don't have the time, energy, expertise or inclination to grow my own food on my own land, so it's much more efficient to let farmers do the farming, and just walk or cycle to the grocers and supermarkets to pick up what I need. Irish agriculture could be a lot greener as an industry, but that's a topic for another day.

Same goes for mains water versus finding patch of land with my own well in it. Economies of scale exist, and the environment will benefit from my using them.

the_only_law• 5 years ago

Maybe not climate emergency, but having lived my life in areas where is hot and humid as shit, I’d love to live somewhere with a more moderate or even cool climate.

My AC was out for a few days the other week and it was absolute misery. I was very jealousy to learn that even very hot areas of the country that don’t have the humidity have cheaper, effective options for indoor cooling.

enderm• 5 years ago

Why would you move?

Ask HN: Where are you moving to, due to climate emergency?

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