Most Livable States in Climate Change

These results are subjective. The chart that lists the various factors is the most important to me. Food production, especially LOCAL food production is the MOST important IMHO. Precipitation is also most important, without water - no food or survival!


The list rating the states below should be combined with the maps at the bottom to decide where the bast place to ride out climate change will be. You must also factor in freedom, employment and cost of living. You will not find utopia but any place is better than living in Las Vegas, Los Angeles or Phoenix. I have seen these maps in other areas of the forum but it is good to put them together in different configuration depending on what is important to the person considering re-location. For me the biggest challenge is surviving climate change. The author lists Minnesota and it is a good state, but western N. Carolina is better for food growing and has a longer summer season.

My own personal list of good states to survive would be as follows:

Vermont, Maine, Minnesota, Iowa, North Carolina, W. Montana, W. Oregon, W. Washington

This is based on climate change, local food economy, liveability and water availability.

I would AVOID the following states at ALL COST:

New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, California, Illinois, Maryland, Delaware, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, N. Dakota, S. Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Lousiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, MIchigan, Pennsylvania. The reasons range from drought/weather disasters to political climate and oppressive laws.

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(This is not my writing and my opinions are added in RED)

Repost: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/02/1281623/-Minnesota-is-the-Most-Livable-State-in-Climate-Change#
Minnesota is POSSIBLY the most liveable state during climate change. Now of course, all of this depends on what you value. Here are my criteria:

1) Food -The ability to grow food is important. While Minnesota will be impacted by storms, hail, drought and higher temperatures, it starts with so much more growing capacity that I think Minnesota will always be able to feed its own state. Food is so important that I gave it double weight in the ranking.
2) Water -Having enough water is essential for drinking, growing food and business. Minnesota is ranked 38th among the states. If Minnesota is careful with its water, it should have enough.
3)Avoid Permanent Flooding - The middle expectation for sea level rise is 3.3 feet. I ruled out any coastal state impacted by sea level rise. Even if only a portion of the state is affected, I expected the economic costs and social turmoil will impact the whole state. Hurricanes are also a risk for these same states.
4) Avoid Toxicity -Toxic Environmental conditions are difficult to evaluate. I did my ranking based on total environmental releases.
5) Avoid Tornadoes - Tornadoes have gotten so harsh in Tornado Alley, that I think it would be too dangerous to live in these areas.
6) Community - Some communities work together, plan ahead, and protect civil rights. I used the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index with a double weight.

Based on the above criteria, here are the top states, with Minnesota ranked number one.



Minnesota
Now after a winter that includes months of driving on glare ice, many people will challenge whether this is a good place to live. I prefer to think of our winters as keeping the riff-raff out. The winters keep pests down like ticks, mosquitoes and food pests. That is important. I would take a winter over much hotter summers.
Even though, Minnesota comes out on top, it still will be very hard to live through climate change. We will have to change to manage water better, adapt to different growing conditions. We will have actively adapt. More hail, flooding, drought, tornadoes and extreme temperatures will challenge us. At the same time, the price of everything will go higher. We will have to learn to get by on much less.
The Abandon Coastal States Assumption
The assumption that I have made is that coastal states will no longer be the wonderful places to live that they previously were. I really don't expect people to stop living in these states. I do expect that living there will get more expensive. The climate issues will drag on the people and the community. Notice how even the US is taking longer and longer to come back from every disaster. One day we will just abandon areas.
More on how ranking were calculated
Normal Rankings were redone so 1 is good and 50 is bad. So the state with the most tornadoes, Oklahoma, changes from 1 to 50.
Some rankings have non-states in the rankings like District of Columbia. These were removed and the numbers adjusted.
Ruling out states affected by 3.3 feet of sea rise was done by giving 200 points to any state impacted by coastal flooding.
Two indices are double weighted, food and happiness.
I am using the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (WBI) to reflect the quality of community. It is called the measure of happiness in the table. WBI is an average of six sub-indices: Life Evaluation, Physical Health, Emotional Health, Healthy Behavior, Work Environment and Basic Access.

Here is the whole table with calculations. (New Jersey should be at the bottom due to it's highly urbanized environment)


A couple of states may be unfairly ranked. Alaska is ranked the worse, however it is the state that may change the most. From climate change, it could be that new crops will grow there.


The megaregions in red will suffer the most because of rising sea levels, tropical storms, droughts and over consumption.




This map show the predicted distribution of precipitation. The darker the green the more moisture for growing and the more clean drinking water.




Temperature rise map with different emissions scenarios. We do not know how this will play out, but choosing an areas that is cooler and wetter is a SAFER place to survive. The heartland and desert southwest are not good bets and neither is California for a host of other reasons.



Also in the winter you want to avoid the increasing Polar Vorticies. If you like -30 and can store 6 months worth of winter food than Minnesota is not a bad place to live.




States where you will be buried in snow in the winter - stay out of the purple