Climate change is taking our cities away

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Climate change is taking our cities away

By District Energy posted 01-10-2019 00:00

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Alissa Walker, Curbed

Summary

City leaders need to start asking the tough question: How much longer can we live here?

An aerial view of a neighborhood destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

California’s deadliest, most destructive fire in history leveled a city of 26,000 residents within a matter of hours. “Completely destroyed,” read the headlines. “Obliterated.” “Paradise lost.”

After a year punctuated by increasingly alarming climate reports, as well as some of the most devastating disasters for many U.S. cities, it’s been difficult to grasp the severity of what seems to be happening—and the fact that it seems to be happening faster and more frequently than we expected.

In November 2018, the Camp Fire burned 95 percent of the structures in the city of Paradise, killing 86 people.