Scientists have claimed that thousands of Americans are fleeing major US cities to escape the effects of climate change. Dr. Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications at First Street Foundation, which has produced a report into the issue, named Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Providence, and Las Vegas as cities experiencing population loss and said that Americans are considering climate impacts when making decisions about where to live. “People have really started to pay attention to the climate data as something that impacts their moves,” he said.
Mr. Porter warned that cities in the future will look “dramatically” different and noted that flooding and wildfires are the primary reasons people are moving around the country and reshaping the character of American cities.
Several surveys add weight to Porter’s claims. For instance, a Zillow report published last September revealed that 80% of Americans factored in climate change when they shopped for property and homes across the country. Zillow senior population scientist Manny Garcia stated that younger generations want to know if their home will be safe from extreme temperatures before deciding where to put down roots. Similarly, a Forbes study found that 30% of Americans who had moved from one city to another in 2022 did so because of climate change concerns.
The Forbes poll followed a report, published in February 2022, noting weather-related disruption in 2021 and the related financial cost. The CoreLogic 2021 Climate Change Catastrophe Report examined 120 million residential buildings and estimated that property damage had cost $56.92 billion that year. It further revealed that “more than 14.5 million homes were impacted to some degree by natural hazards in 2021.”
According to Dr. Jeremy Porter, flooding is the number one weather event people want to avoid. Minnesota counties close to the Mississippi River were most affected, given the river’s tendency to burst its banks.
The study’s researchers also found that Hennepin County and Ramsey County would experience the most significant population decline by 2035. Dr. Porter said that towns in the region would experience related job losses and economic slowdown that would likely expedite their demise.
