US cities are advertising themselves as 'climate havens'. But can they actually protect residents from extreme weather?
BBCUS cities are advertising themselves as 'climate havens'. Getty Images Buffalo's mayor has encouraged Americans to move to the city to escape extreme weather elsewhere in the country Climate change is leading to more intense heatwaves and storms in many parts of the United States, so can some cities provide a refuge from extreme weather? This conversation kicked off in 2019, when Buffalo's mayor Byron Brown declared, during a state of the city address, that Buffalo could be a "climate refuge city", a place where residents of the hurricane-prone Southeast or wildfire-ravaged West, for example, could move to escape climate-induced disasters. "I really could not find any type of extreme weather in Buffalo and Western New York," Stephen Vermette, a professor of geography at Buffalo State University, tells BBC Future Planet. Brendan Mehaffy, who runs Buffalo's office of strategic planning, says city leaders are well aware of the ways climate change is already impacting the region.
History of this topic
The Origins of the Climate Haven Myth
WiredDiscover Related
