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[...] Some experts estimate that climate change could force between 150 and 300 million people to find a new place to live by the middle of this century, though there is considerable uncertainty about the amount. Finding suitable locations to house them will be a significant impediment. As Michael Gerrard explained, "part of the problem is scale. If we're talking about millions of people having to be on the move, it just doesn't work."
In the U.S., there are very few habitable places that aren't already occupied by homes, businesses, or agriculture, or preserved as park lands or forests. Meanwhile, rural areas would provide few opportunities for migrants to find employment and rebuild their lives.
Instead, Gerrard suggested moving people from high-risk areas to cities whose populations are shrinking, such as Detroit, Michigan. He sees cities' potential for vertical development, energy-efficient buildings, and public transportation as a way to sustainably host climate migrants.
What if refugees from Caribbean islands don't want to live in Detroit?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday January 06 2018, @10:42PM
Building homes underground works well thermally. There are other issues like ground water, drainage, cave-ins, mold, vermin. In some places the geology is perfect for subterranean dwelling.
Cappadocia in Turkey [ancient-origins.net] has a deep layer of tuff [wikipedia.org] that's easy to excavate, insulates extremely well because it's like a layer of sprayfoam insulation. There are vast, empty cities [wikipedia.org] there dug out thousands of years ago by the Hittites and their successor civilizations which could easily house the American homeless population. In some parts of Cappadocia people still live in the cave houses and with the addition of a solar panel or two live quite an acceptable modern life; the cave villages were dug with cisterns to capture rainwater and the chemistry of the tuff keeps it clean. My wife and I stayed in a cave hotel in Goreme [wikipedia.org] on our honeymoon and we can attest they're quite comfortable.
For people who can't make it to Turkey, or don't want to, there's a similar layer of tuff by Los Alamos, NM. If you drive the road that goes past the quonset huts where they conducted the work for the Manhattan Project, you'll weave above and below the layer of it. It looks like swiss cheese. At Bandelier National Monument [nps.gov] the Puebloan Indians hollowed dwellings out of it the way the peoples of Cappadocia did.
Washington DC delenda est.