Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
How huge parts of the US could become uninhabitable within decades (independent.co.uk)
9 points by this_weekend 11 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments


Talk about a sensational headline. Even if the worst doomsayers predictions come to pass it would not render huge parts of the US uninhabitable. This strikes me as someone who has not traveled around the world and seen the areas that humans have habitats in and are able to remain there unassisted by modern technology.

The other thing that they forget is that huge parts of the US are extremely difficult to live in on a permanent basis without industrial era conveniences. People forget what the settlers had to go through to settle these areas of the country and why the indigenous peoples never did. You have massive complex societies spanning thousands of years in Central and South Americas but in northern America that was rarely seen. They were nomadic societies and if they remained in an area for any given time it only seems like it was for a few hundred years or less.

The US is incredibly inhospitable throughout most of it. It is the advent of technologies and industrialization which has allowed us to spread across it and live essentially anywhere in it. There's no reason to expect that a climate upset would somehow remove the technologies that allow us to remain.


This map is suspect. I know for a fact there are many areas they highlighted as red that while they do have trees on the mountains people would just shelter in place for a couple days in the valleys and turn on HEPA filters. It would however harm some wildlife and hunting but the areas devoid of trees would do just fine once the smoke has cleared. Ugly, yes until the trees regrow. Uninhabitable, no. They need to do a lot more work on their map using keyhole/google satellite view.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: