Ask HN: Best Place to Live in 2050?

I was going to say somewhere in the mountains in Switzerland, but not the literally most busy city we have :)

My vote goes to Switzerland too.

I migrated here years ago, felt unhappy and travelled a lot. Only with getting older and mostly trough the current pandemic i realized how lucky i actually am.

- We still practice small scale farming communities that are commercially feasable due to smart import taxes

- We have multiple altitudes, climate zones and languages, something for everyone.

- We have a well working society and government most people are very accepting for. Something most countries don't seem to have as seen recently.

- We are kinda well protected (good army, mountains, plenty of weapons in private homes [if that's good or not, it might be in this scenario])

- I think no country did show how it values the independent individual responsibility more than Switzerland in the recent months. No hard lockdowns, no weird laws that just suddenly appear, no swiss being locked out because of weird border issues, ... Most things were done by repeatly explaining why its necessary and not by enforcing it

- Very good education (for free or at least affordable) and the option for home schooling.

- Quality food is affordable. Swiss always think i am joking, but in reality the price difference between organic meat and not is less, and especially the availability is good compared to any other country i've been to. We also generally use less fertilizers than anyone in the EU

> An enduring popular myth suggests that in the 1970s the climate science community was predicting “global cooling” and an “imminent” ice age, an observation frequently used by those who would undermine what climate scientists say today about the prospect of global warming. A review of the literature suggests that, on the contrary, greenhouse warming even then dominated scientists' thinking as being one of the most important forces shaping Earth's climate on human time scales

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/89/9/2008bam...

This would have been my vote.

In 2050, there may be a Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream collapse. Everyone here is posting about how things are gonna warm up - Western Europe is going to cool down probably in a 1C or 2C warming scenario. W. Europe is further north than people think.

The Med is a great heat sink / battery and regulates the local climate. Imagine Nice in the spring, or Barcelona.

The older I get the more I appreciate the US Midwest (where I am originally from and where I live now). There are quite a few advantages in your doomsday scenario as well!

- Cooler climate, and far away from many natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. This should make the effects of warming/climate change milder.

- Plenty of fresh water

- Diverse local economy including manufacturing and agriculture

- Far away from international borders (except Canada)

- Cheap land in 2021, so easy to move to if you are already in the USA