What are climate havens? They are seen as places with an abundance of freshwater that are cooler on average, and would benefit from milder winters. Wisconsin, and Madison in particular seem to fit that bill. In fact, this CBS News piece, holds Madison is stark contrast to Paradise, California which burned to the ground in 2018.  Madison is toted as a place safe from–or even benefiting from–climate change. In her recent piece There will be no “climate haven”, Tone Madison News and Politics Editor Christina Lieffring writes that these narratives create “a false sense of security” and offers “potential easy answer to this crisis.”

Lieffring hosts today’s A Public Affair and goes more in depth with Professors Sumudu Atapattu and Richard Keller about the complex issue of climate-based displacement. Keller is the author Fatal Isolation: The Devastating Paris Heat Wave of 2003, and he argues that heat, even in cooler climates, can have drastic and deadly consequences when the infrastructure is not ready.

Atapattu, author of UN Human Rights Institutions and the Environment, offers that developing nations are disproportionately impacted by the rise in temperature, sea level, and natural disasters. She press that globally we must be prepared to relocate populations whose homes will become inhabitable.

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