Climate safe havens may be a thing of the past
Safe spaces are few and far between


Hurricanes Helene and Milton wreaked havoc on the U.S. south, including some areas that were once thought to be safe from the effects of climate change. These climate havens are seeing high levels of immigration as people look to move away from heavily affected regions. However, as global temperatures rise and climate change continues to worsen, no place on Earth will truly be free from the disastrous effects.
A climate haven no more
Climate safe havens are "areas touted by researchers, public officials and city planners as natural refuges from extreme climate conditions," said PBS News. In the U.S., these locations tend to be in the Midwest or quite inland from the coast. One of the most popular "safe" places was Asheville, North Carolina, where many have opted to move to because they "viewed this as a safe haven from wildfires out west and hurricanes that were hitting more coastal areas," Mike Figura, an Asheville-based real estate broker, said to NPR. But the pummeling from Hurricane Helene left some of the worst damage in North Carolina, with almost one-third of the hurricane deaths occurring in Buncombe County, which encompasses Asheville.
"Many folks seeking out climate-change-protected places in the U.S. have leaned toward small, progressive cities in relatively cool parts of the Midwest and East," said Yale Climate Connections. The problem is that climate change has caused both the atmosphere and the ocean to be warmer, which both act as fuel for a hurricane and allow it to reach further inland. While many in the coastal regions were directed to evacuate in preparation for the storm, most deaths still "occurred farther inland, in the mountainous terrain where challenges such as spotty cell and internet services, limited experience with hurricanes and more limited evacuation infrastructure" left people "feeling caught off guard," said an analysis by World Weather Attribution.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Climate change has been bringing more extreme weather all over the world from stronger hurricanes to wildfires to droughts. "What happened in western North Carolina really speaks to the challenge of atmospheric warming generating heavier rainfall," said Nicolas Zegre, director of the Mountain Hydrology Lab at West Virginia University, to The Washington Post. "That is a tremendous amount of water that has nowhere to go."
A misleading notion
The idea of a climate safe haven is misleading according to some experts. "Climate change is sort of a pervasive issue that is going to affect communities all over the world — not equally — but definitely it will impact everyone, everywhere in some way," Antonia Sebastian, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said to ABC News. Safe havens are simply seeing more severe effects more slowly than some other regions. "What I think people are kind of missing from their interpretation of 'climate haven' is this issue of likelihood," Samantha Montano, a professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, said to NPR. "Just because it is less likely for a specific disaster to happen in one community does not mean that it is not going to happen in that community."
"The idea of a climate refuge itself is kind of an escapist fantasy," Billy Fleming, director of the McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said to Vox. "To the extent that a climate refuge even exists, it's not a particularly physical or geophysical phenomenon. It's social and economic." The climate crisis disproportionately impacts those of lower socioeconomic status as they have fewer means to protect themselves or evacuate high-risk areas. But even with money, it is "unlikely that any places will be truly safe from climate change — and even high-elevation, inland areas are vulnerable to drowning in a world where planetary warming is fueling heavier rains," said the Post.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Devika Rao has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022, covering science, the environment, climate and business. She previously worked as a policy associate for a nonprofit organization advocating for environmental action from a business perspective.
-
Anti-anxiety drug has a not-too-surprising effect on fish
Under the radar The fish act bolder and take more risks
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Electric ferries are becoming the next big environmental trend
Under the Radar From Hong Kong to Lake Tahoe, electric ferries are the new wave
By Justin Klawans, The Week US
-
Ukraine is experiencing an 'ecocide' and wants Russia to pay
Under the radar The environment is a silent victim of war
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
How wild horses are preventing wildfires in Spain
Under The Radar The animals roam more than 5,700 hectares of public forest, reducing the volume of combustible vegetation in the landscape
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK
-
Scientists invent a solid carbon-negative building material
Under the radar Building CO2 into the buildings
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Dozens of deep-sea creatures discovered after iceberg broke off Antarctica
Under the radar The cold never bothered them anyway
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Earth's climate is in the era of 'global weirding'
The Explainer Weather is harder to predict and more extreme
By Devika Rao, The Week US
-
Hot to go: extreme heat can make people age faster
Under the radar New research shows warming temperatures can affect biological age
By Devika Rao, The Week US