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America, Stop Moving West

burgesspowell.medium.com

71–80 of 86 posts

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#71

This has to be one of the sillier things I've ever seen. Highlighted in the article is Phoenix arizona in Maricopa County which is one of the most responsibly managed metropolitan areas in the country if not the world. More than 50% of the power derived from nuclear at Palos Verdes just 45 miles from the city which evaporates wastewater to drive turbines and provide cooling. Another 14% from solar. Plumbed grey water…

Phoenix has made strides, but largely because it started from such a low, low bar. Exemplified by the Navajo Generating Plant, one of the largest coal fired power plants ever built, just to power pumps for lifting Colorado River water 2900ft up to Phoenix.

Not to mention the damage to the Colorado, which no longer has enough flow to reach the ocean. That “Net groundwater contributor” comment? It’s because Phoenix drains the Colorado and pumps it into the city’s private aquifers

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#72

This has to be one of the sillier things I've ever seen. Highlighted in the article is Phoenix arizona in Maricopa County which is one of the most responsibly managed metropolitan areas in the country if not the world. More than 50% of the power derived from nuclear at Palos Verdes just 45 miles from the city which evaporates wastewater to drive turbines and provide cooling. Another 14% from solar. Plumbed grey water…

I hope 'Californication' doesn't take over Phoenix. > In 2017 Portland ranked third. Now it has dropped to 66th out of 80. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2021/06/12/portland-... Oakland is similar in SF Bay Area, used to be quite livable 15 years ago. Californians (and people from west coast states) that move there also bring their unchecked progressive views and will lead to the situation that we have in SF…

The housing crisis that California is exporting is rich people buying up single family homes then demanding that no apartments get built near them anywhere.

This is not a "progressive view". This is rich, elitist, anti-renter landed gentry shit.

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article calls out Austin and Miami as risky places to move. It should probably be called “Americans, stop moving out of the north east.”

i dont think they thought it through very well... more gulf coast heat = more water for austin

How do you figure?

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#74

Or south: Texas from the Gulf Coast to the Hill Country, New Orleans, Miami...

The article calls out Austin and Miami as risky places to move. It should probably be called “Americans, stop moving out of the north east.”

It mentions Seattle as being potentially a good place, if it built more housing. That's sort of not true because it's at sea level, but sort of true because it's hilly.

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#75
post #14
post #5

> How did we become so divorced from reality? Before criticizing those seeking a better life in questionable directions first ask why are they motivated to do so in the first place? This pattern predates COVID, what is the problem in the North East that is causing people to move south west? Answer that and you might have a clue as to why the migration is happening and what to do about it.

Right...and isn't the reality that a country as rich as America can afford to have people live in places which aren't directly compatible with life? Power and water seem to be the most important aspects regarding quality of life. I'm not worried about power because the southwest has tons of solar power available. And I'm not worried about water in the southwest because, yes, the Colorado river is oversubscribed, but…

America is a country run by rich people for rich people, not a rich country.

Saying "America is a rich country" is a classic demonstration of the difference between median and mean in statistics.

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#76
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right...and isn't the reality that a country as rich as America can afford to have people live in places which aren't directly compatible with life? Power and water seem to be the most important aspects regarding quality of life. I'm not worried about power because the southwest has tons of solar power available. And I'm not worried about water in the southwest because, yes, the Colorado river is oversubscribed, but…

America is a country run by rich people for rich people, not a rich country. Saying "America is a rich country" is a classic demonstration of the difference between median and mean in statistics.

Do you think Phoenix is full of rich people? And yet, there they are, in the middle of the desert, somehow not all dying of thirst while the 1% waters their multi-acre front lawn.

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#77

This has to be one of the sillier things I've ever seen. Highlighted in the article is Phoenix arizona in Maricopa County which is one of the most responsibly managed metropolitan areas in the country if not the world. More than 50% of the power derived from nuclear at Palos Verdes just 45 miles from the city which evaporates wastewater to drive turbines and provide cooling. Another 14% from solar. Plumbed grey water…

“Without a precision engineered weather suit between dec and may you will die from just being outside” You’re laying it on a bit thick. Here in Minnesota we call it a coat and boots.

The same thing is true in hot climates.

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#79
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right...and isn't the reality that a country as rich as America can afford to have people live in places which aren't directly compatible with life? Power and water seem to be the most important aspects regarding quality of life. I'm not worried about power because the southwest has tons of solar power available. And I'm not worried about water in the southwest because, yes, the Colorado river is oversubscribed, but…

America is a country run by rich people for rich people, not a rich country. Saying "America is a rich country" is a classic demonstration of the difference between median and mean in statistics.

For US Median ~63k vs mean ~73k: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_Unit...

Germany (typically used as an example of a wealthy country in EU) is ~49k mean (average), so US has higher median and mean income than Germany. One can get into services, etc, but still US is a rich country.

Once you get much past north west of EU, things get decidedly poor. While situation is not ideal in the US, most Americans have considerably more luxuries in their lives (in other words higher consumption of goods and services). Whether we are consuming and prioritizing the wrong things is a different question, and I suspect your criticism is more aimed at what do we actually get in return for this wealth/consumption.

Re: America, Stop Moving West

#80

I love how this “article” completely glosses over the fact that the northeast/Midwest gets devastating snowstorms that cripple entire states for days at a time. These “polar vortexes” are clearly becoming more severe and more common as the earth’s weather continues to spiral out of control. So the options are move somewhere where it’s hell on earth for a portion of the year, move somewhere where it’s a frozen wastela…

The Polar Vortex has definitely become a regular (annual?) occurrence in the central US. What should scare Texans is that this year it only came 5-10% further south than “normal”. But you have to remember - it is bringing air down from the arctic circle - this air is as cold as it gets. It’s not getting colder over the next few decades.

It’s ludicrous to expect that there will be a region in the world that will be unaffected by climate change over the next 5 decades. There are going to be negative effects everywhere. But some places are going to be worse than others, and the southern half of the US is going to be worse off than the northern half of the US.

I personally think that we are 10-20 years away from the point at which climate migration makes sense for the smart money, with ready buyers of the property you want to leave behind. Put a reminder in your calendar and go about your life.

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