by Thomas Richard
An article in Bloomberg, titled “Climate Change Is Putting Swelling Cities at Risk,” with the subtitle, “A warming world is putting Bangladesh, Niger, Pakistan, and other countries more at risk for extreme weather,” makes some false claims refuted by real-world data and by scientific research that examines the impacts of growth and the densification of cities. [emphasis, links added]
The authors, Dorothy Gambrell and Brian Kahn say this:
Weather events exacerbated by climate change will threaten many places in the coming years, and many of these locations are also projected to gain a lot of new inhabitants. In the world’s largest cities, governments will have to do more to protect the millions of people in danger from a hot planet.
The article provides a graphic, seen below, which purports to show where the urban populations are “most vulnerable to climate change.”
What is most telling is that the Bloomberg map shows clearly the at-risk urban cities have the lowest per-capita income and lower access to inexpensive energy.
It is no surprise that most of the economically depressed areas of Africa, [as well as Asia and India] are shown to be the most “at risk.”
They go on to cite specific examples:
None of these points are climate change-related or even “extreme weather”-related as Bloomberg’s headline claims, rather they are indications that these cities are experiencing resource overuse related to population growth, a “Tragedy of the commons” as described below:
According to the concept, should many people enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource such as a pasture [or water], they will tend to overuse it and may end up destroying its value altogether. Even if some users exercised voluntary restraint, the other users would merely supplant them, the predictable result a tragedy for all.
This is purely an issue of increased populations in a small area, not climate change.
A second problem related to the increase in population and expansion of cities is called the expanded bullseye effect, which occurs when population and development increase in areas or regions prone to natural disasters, as discussed in numerous Climate Realism posts here and here, for example.
Some of the claims, such as those of Mexico City’s drinking water issues and Jakarta sinking due to groundwater withdrawal are simply laughable to blame on climate change.
The Bloomberg article references no proof that the problems are being caused by climate change – because there simply isn’t any.
The article suggests that rising temperatures in cities in Asia/India are at the greatest risk.
However, recent data on the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) by climatologist Roy Spencer, Ph.D., shows that the heat in cities and suburbs, in Asia and elsewhere like Phoenix, is a direct result of increasing populations and infrastructure boosting the UHI.
In the side-by-side map below listed as Figure 1, compare the amount of UHI effect difference between April 1850 and April 2023 in India’s most populous region:
Back in the 1970’s it was Global Cooling and a New Ice Age the very same Leftists Rags Time and Newsweek was giving it Front page Coverage and episode of In Serach Of was all about the Hard Winter of 1976/77 in Buffalo New York
Yet the left wants everyone (not hyperbole… EVERYONE) to live in huge, tightly packed cities.
06/06/24: No, gain of function research DID NOT cause COVID-19:
Um… what does this have to do with climate?
Well… no it doesn’t. If COVID-19 evolved from non-infectious to HIGHLY infections, why did it evolve back to far less infectious?
There WAS a reported infection event at the lab.
Both have to do with denialism and conspiracy theory.
Two of the three things you would know a lot about, since you obsess on them all.
06/22/24 – Everything’s About to Get a Hell of a Lot More Expensive Due to Climate Change – Intensifying hurricanes, floods, and heat waves are wreaking havoc across the US—and on everyone’s bank accounts.
Tell it to the sun.