Pittsburgh might have an advantage over other parts of the US (geographically) (loans, live in)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Lobick

Surely you'd agree that places with plentiful, cheap sources of water would have a marginal advantage over those areas who need to alter behavior and/or embrace new technological innovations to achieve the same end.

Mass relocation would use up more resources.

I wouldn't locate a water-intensive industry in Colorado, or Arizona, or anywhere else in the southwest, no.

Originally Posted by BrianTH

My point is just that human adaptability isn't necessarily good news for particular places. Actually predicting in detail what will happen is beyond my abilities.

By the way, an interesting map:

Really? Call me

[gg]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Mass relocation would use up more resources.

Not all resources are created equal. Last I checked water may be the most important one in the world. Judging from what I am reading about in the Midwest, water's value is increasing. Will it continue? Will it be great next year? No one knows, but at the moment I would at the very least keep up with the issues and follow what is going on. Pittsburgh doesn't have to, which is nice and is what prompted my post. We may be looking more desirable as time passes, but it is still very hard to say. Even more sad, is the fact that when and if we figure all this out, it will probably be too late to be orderly about it all.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Mass relocation would use up more resources.

Not necessarily. People are already moving around all the time. So, all you have to do is slightly increase the rate of out-migration and/or decrease the rate of in-migration in a particular place and you can get a negative population trend (we know this quite well in the Pittsburgh region).

The marginal change in resource consumption in such a scenario may not be all that high, and might even be lower.

[Geeo]

Interesting topic. The Great Plains and south west have historically had some killer droughts. Thousands and thousands migrated to Caifornia during the Dust Bowl - interesting that they went to a place that had to be irrigated, though.

I think our advantage is our temperate climate and abundant water supply. If the population of Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles keeps growinig, it will be difficult to supply adequate water, even with the aqueducts. And four million people were never meant to live in the middle of the desert, anyway - ex: Phoenix and Las Vegas. It's all pretty man-made with few natural resources. And as we all know, it's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

[bradjl2009]

While it has been a hot summer here, we've still haven't been as bad as places at similar latitudes to our west and east.

[Goinback2011]

The Great Plains and south west have historically had some killer droughts

We have no idea how volatile and harsh the climate can get in the Americas. There's a reason the indigenous population didn't achieve the level of civilization that the people in Europe and Asia achieved......It was the weather.

"We think we know drought, but that's probably wrong," Loope said. "It was a whole different scene in medieval time than it was in the 1930s and '50s....If these conditions return, it will be really bad and there's nothing we can do about it. That these conditions existed only a thousand years ago is sobering."

UNL | News Release | UNL scientists link wind shift, medieval mega-drought in Sandhills

[ForYourLungsOnly]

"Midwest " is rather vague. Those big things called the Great Lakes sure provide lots of water. Wisconsin isn't the same as southern Missouri

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

I keep seeing headlines about the midwest and how horrible it is out there right now. Pittsburgh seems to be in a good location for the obvious global warming that is going on. Will we see an influx of Midwesterners as their region becomes more difficult to live, due to climate? I have been reading about farming mostly, but this is kind of scary. Guess it really is getting hot out there. Pretty hot here as well, but not nearly as bad. People do migrate if needed. I have a feeling Pittsburgh may look good to some that are in horrible situations out there.

Thousands of fish die as Midwest streams heat up - Yahoo! News

I don't buy it. A few years ago, the midwest was flooding. Droughts come and go.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Of course one of the ways human beings adapt to environmental changes is by moving around to wherever is most hospitable at the time:

Neolithic Subpluvial - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That was when humans were powerless to cope with the climate. Technology has advanced considerably since then.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

We have no idea how volatile and harsh the climate can get in the Americas. There's a reason the indigenous population didn't achieve the level of civilization that the people in Europe and Asia achieved......It was the weather.

No, it was isolation from other cultures. Even the Europeans had stuff to learn from the Far East and vice versa.