Quebec floods

This Montreal Gazette story opens with a line which I expect will become increasingly commonly heard as climate change impacts worsen: “Premier François Legault said Sunday it might be necessary to force people in flood zones to move away to avoid taxpayers having to constantly pay to repair their homes.”

That seems sure to be one of the big sources of disruption: people living in especially vulnerable places, getting hit over and over by extreme weather, and facing pressure to relocate, all while feeling put out and entitled to keep living as they did before.

People who currently profit from fossil fuels want compensation if they are forced to stop, and people suffering the consequences of fossil fuels want compensation for their losses. The anonomyzing gulf between emissions in one place and impacts in another threaten to leave everyone unsatisfied. Meanwhile, more and more places whose habitability we have taken for granted may become unlivable as storms worsen, sea levels rise, and water scarcity gets harsher.