By Zach Gottlieb
Everyone thinks that global warming will kill us all. But according to Climatopolis, a new book by UCLA economist Matthew Kahn, climate change won’t destroy Earth—just fundamentally change it.
“City growth has caused climate change,” Kahn says. “But that growth is also what’s going to get us out of it.” That is, as the weather heats up, people will migrate and change their behavior—affecting city landscapes, architecture, quality of life, cost of living, infrastructure, and more. Here’s how some key US cities might look in our hot, crowded, flooded future.
LOS ANGELES Between raging wildfires, thickening smog, and suffocating inland temps, only a fraction of LA will remain habitable, increasing the population density along the coast. Sprawl will give way to high-rises, and the inevitable carbon tax will decimate what’s left of the city’s car culture.
SAN DIEGO The Road meets The Golden Girls! Once temperatures soar, potable water becomes scarce, and 24/7 air-conditioning ratchets up demand for electricity, the able-bodied will migrate away, leaving the elderly and infirm to duke it out for whatever limited resources remain.
more
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/09/pl_print_kahn/