What Are The Best States To Deal With Climate Change

The Best & Worst States for Climatic change in the U.Due south.

Written Past: SafeHome.org Team | Updated: June 31, 2021

The warnings are dire: If humanity is unable (or unwilling) to make major progress in curbing global warming by 2030, the effects to life on this planet will be catastrophic — mass species die-offs, dangerously high sea levels and more regular exposure to extreme oestrus across the globe.

We are seeing existent-world impacts of climate change nearly every 24-hour interval. Amongst the nearly dramatic recent examples are the devastating brushfires that have torn through Commonwealth of australia. These fires, which have consumed millions of acres and killed at least 2 dozen people and endless animals, were spurred largely by farthermost heat and prolonged drought — Australia surpassed its record high temperature twice in December 2019 alone.

However, despite near-unanimous scientific agreement that the dramatic increment in global temperatures over the past century is driven by act, fighting climate change and global warming remains a divisive political issue. Among all Americans, the threat of climate change is largely sinking in — 57% of Americans today say global warming is a threat to the well-being of Americans, up from 40% in 2013. However, amidst conservative Republicans, that number is just 19% and among all Republicans, including those who identify as moderate or even liberal, information technology's just 43%.

Just nosotros've already seen the widespread effects of climate alter right hither in the U.Due south. — wildfires, stronger hurricanes and more than frequent flooding, merely to name a few. In such a large and environmentally diverse landmass as the United States, the furnishings of climate change vary considerably across the country, with some regions of the country likely to experience far worse impacts from global warming than others.

To quantify which states are likely to accept it the best (and worst) over the side by side several decades, nosotros examined information published by Climate Central, a group of scientists and researchers focused on documenting the effects of climatic change.

Our research indicated that while every country would exist impacted by rise temperatures, there are a handful of unlucky states that past virtue of their geographic placement will exist especially threatened by climatic change. To see the full methodology used to create our Climate Change Run a risk Index, jump to the lesser of the page. We have excluded Alaska and Hawaii from the analysis for lack of comparable data.

Climate Change Take chances Index

The impacts of climate change are vast and complex, but at that place are 5 major categories of furnishings — extreme heat, drought, wildfires, coastal flooding and inland flooding. Each of those categories carries a range of impacts of their own. For instance, farthermost estrus increases the risk of illness or expiry in humans and animals, only information technology too impacts agronomical yields and strains the electrical filigree.

To calculate our Climatic change Gamble Index, we compared information to determine things like how many people are at risk of dangerously high temperatures, wildfires or flooding and how climate change volition extend periods like musquito season or loftier wildfire gamble days. Each state was ranked in each category from all-time to worst, and those figures were added together to create a total in which higher numbers equate to greater risk from climate change.

9 of the x states that are likely to feel the worst impacts of climate change are in the South, and most of those are coastal states. California, a West Coast state, takes the No. 10 spot. But two of the Southern states in the height 10, Arkansas and Kentucky, are landlocked.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Northeast dominates the list of states where climate alter impact is probable to exist less severe, including No. i Vermont, with neighboring New Hampshire in a distant second place. The Northeast is dwelling to the only iii states with Climate Change Risk Index scores lower than 100 (Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts).

Regionally, the highest boilerplate score is in the South, where the average state has a Climate change Risk Index score of 229, far higher than the overall U.S. average of about 174. In fact, no other region has an boilerplate score over that, though the W is close.

As we mentioned, all 48 states nosotros analyzed are expected to meet an increment in extreme heat, which could include an increase in the number of very hot days, an extension of the musquito season in the state, or a higher number of poor air quality days, amongst other impacts of extreme oestrus. Vermont is the just land where extreme heat is the merely expected climate change impact, and a few states will be impacted past all v issues — heat, drought, wildfires, coastal flooding, and inland flooding.

California, Florida, Georgia, Northward Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Washington are expected to experience all five major climatic change categories over the next few decades. Non surprisingly, all of those states also have Climate Modify Risk Alphabetize scores higher than the overall U.S. average.

Extreme heat will impact every state, with drought the second-nigh common climate change impact — three in 4 states are expected to see their drought risk rise. Coastal flooding is the least common climate alter impact amid all five, simply just two states amid those with the ten highest risk scores have no coastal flooding risk.

Extreme Heat

Because farthermost rut is the most common climate change touch, affecting all states in the coming years, we included the highest number of factors related to farthermost oestrus in our index. Our analysis in this area included the percentage of people vulnerable to extreme heat, the increase in mosquito season days between the 1980s and today and the projected number of dangerously hot days (days where the heat index is higher than 105 degrees) past 2050.

Drought

Elevated drought take chances is the second near common projected climate change impact, expected to touch 75% of the states nosotros analyzed. Because available information on drought risk is a flake sparse, and several states aren't probable to see their drought chance ascension tremendously, we included just one gene in ranking states for drought risk — the projected percent increase in the severity of widespread summer drought. In several states, this chance is expected to explode through 2050, while every state impacted by drought is expected to run across some increment in this charge per unit.

Inland Flooding

Inland flooding is projected to impact 33 of the 48 states we examined, making information technology the third about common climate change impact. In this surface area, we included ane gene to rank how much inland flooding is expected to affect the country — the percentage of a state'south population at high risk of inland flooding, meaning those living in the federal government-designated 100-year floodplain.

Wildfires

Just over one-half of the 48 states that were part of our analysis are expected to see impacts of climate change related to wildfires. In this area, we included two factors as office of our ranking — the increment in days with loftier wildfire potential through 2050 and the percentage of the population who currently live in an area with an elevated wildfire adventure.

Coastal Flooding

Twenty-two states are expected to encounter serious impacts of coastal flooding related to climate alter. In 2 states, upwards of 15% of the population is at an elevated take chances of coastal flooding. This is the only factor we considered when examining coastal flooding risk, though many other factors exist; at-risk population is one of the only factors for which apples-to-apples comparisons tin exist made. The percentage of people at adventure of coastal flooding represents those living in the 100-twelvemonth coastal floodplain.

What About Your Country?

While pretty much everyone has been experiencing rising temperatures, as we've seen, the impacts of climate change on a state-by-state footing are broad and diverse. Take a expect at what'south expected to happen in your state:

Determination

While the specific impacts of climate change volition vary from state to country, the reality is no American volition be able to completely escape the real and everyday effects of human-induced climate change.

Methodology

All of the data used in our analysis came from the excellent work of Climate Central and a site it maintains, States at Risk, which is a clearinghouse of data and analysis related to the impacts of climatic change on the states. We excluded Alaska and Hawaii from our assay because not enough data was available for either i to describe fair comparisons.

The site lists dozens of impacts for states and, ofttimes, multiple cities within usa, but the factors we included in our Climate Modify Risk Alphabetize were:

Increased mosquito flavor days, 1980s to today
Dangerously hot days past 2050 (days with heat alphabetize of at to the lowest degree 105 degrees) in land or largest city
Per centum of people vulnerable to extreme oestrus
Increment in severity of widespread summer drought, 2000-2050
Percentage of people currently affected by inland flooding (percentage living in 100-year floodplain)
Increase in days with high wildfire potential, 2000-2050
Percentage of population at elevated wildfire risk
Percentage of people currently affected by coastal flooding (percentage living in 100-year coastal floodplain)

The data for each country was ranked from all-time to worst, and each land's rank in all the categories were added together to create the overall ranking in which lower scores equate to lower risk from climate modify.

Off-white Employ Statement

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Source: https://www.safehome.org/climate-change-statistics/

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