, a data-analytics firm, ranked U.S. counties in terms of how well they will be protected from the risks posed by climate change.
The analysis included six major categories — heat stress, the combination of heat and humidity , crop loss, very large fires, sea-level rise and economic damages — and rated each county on the impact climate change would have on them given two emissions scenarios: high and moderate.
With the exception of its coastline, which is highly vulnerable to sea level rise, the bulk of the Northeast was rated low in terms of overall climate risks. Eager to promote the findings, officials in places like Buffalo, N.Y., which lies on the far eastern banks of Lake Erie on the U.S. border with Canada, have even begun marketing the city as a"," promoting a relatively low incidence of natural disasters and a long-term forecast of mild weather.
Exacerbated by local land subsidence along the Northeastern coastal regions, seas have already risen 1 ft since 1900 and could, depending on emissions scenarios, could rise by as much as another 21 inches by 2050,Cities like Boston and New York have already begun spending the billions of dollars that will be necessary to protect some neighborhoods from rising waters, erecting sea walls and berms that some critics have assailed as too little too late.