A new climate change map shows predictions for just how devastated the future climate will be in various places around the world. The map, which is called The Future Urban Climates, allows interested users to explore how their home area’s climate might change going forward.
The data used to create the map comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and it was created by University of Maryland spatial ecologist Matthew Fitzpatrick to showcase the future of climate change up to 2080.
Of course, all of the changes showcased on the climate change map are just predictions based on current trends of extreme storms, fires, floods, droughts, heat waves, and cold snaps—all of which continue to hit us harder each year.
I know this is awful and I shouldnt joke, but there is something darkly funny about seeing an article about how devestated the world will be, and then seeing it says Scotland will be like Bilbao for when I retire.
I mean I kind of agree, most of the ones I tried were rather underwhelming. We’ve been joking for a while that Amsterdam would be the new Barcelona, but this tool gives you Bordeaux as a match which is a lovely place to be right now… Tried Edinburgh and the match was in Spain, so a much bigger differential but still I don’t see how that would give any Scots such a bad feeling indeed…
If we continue this trajectory, here are a lot of highly populated and productive urban economic centers that read:
“Future climate for this location is expected to be unlike anything currently found anywhere on Earth, so there are no climate matches for this location.”
These are the most densely populated cities on earth. In the most peaceful 2080 scenario, all that you (or your descendants) would have to worry about in Scotland is that suddenly all these people would be on your doorstep, overburdening your supply chains, disrupting the job market and driving prices relentlessly upward because Scotland suddenly has very temperate weather and everybody wants to be there. Congrats, enjoy the new traffic and strained healthcare system.
In the most realistic scenario, there’s endless war, death, and suffering globally as human migration on a scale we’ve never seen disrupts everything everywhere.
Thank you I’m aware of that, hence why I explicitly caveated my post as being dark humour.