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Tuesday, April 18th, 2017

Sea level rise to trigger human migration, reshape inland cities

Author:     Brooks Hays
Source:     UPI
Publication Date:     April 17, 2017 at 3:34 PM
 Link: Sea level rise to trigger human migration, reshape inland cities
Stephan:   If you have been reading SR for the past decade you know about my strong feelings that the U.S. will be facing  three big migrations by the end of the century: 1) away from the coasts because of sea rise; 2) out of the southwest because of lack of water and high temperatures; 3) out of certain central states because of recurrent extreme weather events like tornadoes.  It gives me no pleasure to be accurate. Here's how the trend is emerging in the media.

Nearly half of a million people were displaced from New Orleans and surrounding coastal communities by Hurricane Katrina.
Credit: UPI/Vincent Laforet/Pool

A handful of inland cities in the United States are likely to be significantly impacted by inland migration as people flee rising sea levels. According to new research out of the University of Georgia, cities like Atlanta, Houston and Phoenix could see large influxes of people in the coming decades.

“We typically think about sea level rise as a coastal issue, but if people are forced to move because their houses become inundated, the migration could affect many landlocked communities as well,” Mathew Hauer, a demographer at the University of Georgia, said in a news release.

Researchers believe their study — published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change — is the first to look at the displacement and relocation patterns of large coastal populations.

Scientists believe sea-level rise will trigger movements similar to those observed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The movements may happen […]

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