You may have noticed that Phoenix tends to get a bit warm, and the weather gets a bit weird sometimes (think "haboobs).
According to one writer, though, Phoenix is in the "climate crosshairs," and a future Superstorm Sandy-like or Hurricane Katrina-like disaster might not be unlikely.
See also:
-Climate Change May Lead to "Exodus from Phoenix," or Maybe Just Total Disaster
"In Phoenix, it's the convergence of heat, drought, and violent winds, interacting and amplifying each other that you worry about," conservationist William deBuys writes. "Generally speaking, in contemporary society, nothing that matters happens for just one reason, and in Phoenix there are all too many "reasons" primed to collaborate and produce big problems, with climate change foremost among them, juicing up the heat, the drought, and the wind to ever greater extremes, like so many sluggers on steroids."
For example, if the power grid fails on a large scale and for quite some time, then "the fallout will make the consequences of Superstorm Sandy look mild," he says.
deBuys points to several things that could spell disaster for the Phoenix metro area, including the fact that the area's getting hotter, the running-out-of-water problem, the wildfires, drought, and "its particular brand of local politics."
"Instead [of fixing the problems], one or several decades from now, people will bet on a surer thing: they'll take the road out of town," deBuys says.
Writer Tom Engelhardt doesn't have the best outlook, either.
"When the Anglo farmers of the Phoenix Basin first started using the local rivers, they found themselves 'reopening the canals the Hohokam had left behind,'" he writes. "Who knows what monumental works we, too, might someday abandon? Phoenix, anyone?"
Let's get some predictions: will there be an exodus from Phoenix in the next few decades?
Cast your vote below:
