This week I was at a client’s home and the news was on their television. It was a conservative program and the anchors were commenting about a mass exodus from California because of the fires and smoke. I’m sure people are thinking about it, but I doubt we’ve seen or will see a ‘mass exodus’. I know the thought of leaving briefly crossed my mind during all those smoke filled days which are not entirely behind us this early in the first season. I dismissed the notion for several reasons.
First and foremost I was born and raised in Marin County and there is really nowhere else I want to live aside from maybe retiring to a tropical island with my surfboard. That’s probably not realistic, and with rising sea levels and increasingly ferocious storms it’s not a great idea anyway. Oregon and Washington are two states that appeal to me, but basically the entire west coast is on fire right now and the air is even worse up there currently. Maybe Canada eh?
The fact of the matter is anywhere you go you are going to be effected by climate change. One of my clients who is in Wisconsin told me they are getting our smoke high in their atmosphere. The smoke is being reported all the way in Europe. The Atlantic Ocean is churning out tropical storms and hurricanes at record rates, so the eastern seaboard is pretty much out, especially Florida. I certainly don’t want to live in the Arizona desert, although there is a pretty sweet wave pool coming to Scottsdale. Texas is a neat place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there and its coastline gets battered as well. I’m not a fan of their heat and humidity either.
Every country in the world is susceptible to natural disasters. You can’t fool with Mother Nature. Hurricanes, tornados, fires, flooding, landslides, and earthquakes are all in her arsenal and right now she’s not very happy about how we’ve been treating the planet. The real answer is for humanity to find more sustainable ways of life. Our oceans are drowning in plastic. Our landfills are spilling over. Toxic waste sites and nuclear accidents like the one in Fukushima are reality.
In the immortal words of the Lord Humongous, Ruler of the Wasteland in Max Max Road Warrior, “You! You can run but you can’t hide!”
I don’t foresee a mass exodus from California because the state has too many positive things going for it: the ocean, mountains, lakes, not to mention the arts and culture, and of course the Silicon Valley and Randy Newman’s L.A. You can’t be a day at the San Diego Zoo or SeaWorld either. Some people may relocate within the state. People living in forests may need to rethink their situations. As we’ve seen in San Francisco people in the cities are leaving. There is definitely an urban exodus. We are seeing a lot of people coming to Marin and other surrounding Bay Area counties. The Bay Area continues to be a wonderous place to live.
And we still live on a beautiful planet. Mother Nature is not happy, and I think she’s pretty much got everyone’s attention now. It’s time we all started doing what we can to get on her good side.