"Daily Show" Takes On Climate Refuge Cities By Going To Duluth

"The Daily Show" poked affectionate fun at Duluth,
Minnesota being considered a "climate refuge"

Here in Vermont last summer, we learned the hard way that the Green Mountain State isn't quite the great climate change refuge it's been made out to be.  

Sure, we're in a safer spot than many areas, despite our flood risks.  A 2021 study that said six of the 10 safest counties from the ravages of climate in all of the United States are located in Vermont

I suppose that's still true, despite our floods. 

Other regions regarded as most safe from climate change are scattered around the Great Lakes. One of those safe places is Duluth, Minnesota. 

Ah yes, Duluth.  The place that until this winter anyway pretty much stayed below zero. Where the "gales of November" blast off to Lake Superior into the this city of 86,000 people.  Summers are nice, though. 

The Daily Show's Michael Kosta investigates the idea of climate refugees from fashionable zip codes in California and Florida showing up in unassuming Duluth to flee climate change driven wildfires and hurricanes and such. 

Kosta arrives in Duluth to play one of those elite coastal types who looks down on flyover cities like Duluth asking how people from, say California, would ever want to move to Duluth.

The Daily Show's Michael Kosta ventured to 
Duluth to see if the northern Minnesota city was
really a great climate refuge for coastal elites. 

The city's Chief Sustainability Officer Mindy Granley told Kosta that people from climate disaster prone places like California are already starting to move to Duluth. 

"You mean people are moving here from the good states,?" Kosta asks incredulously .

He then meets one of those California transplants. She tells Kosta that the small town feel of Duluth makes her feel like neighbors can rely on one another when climate change causes problems or even danger. 

Wait, I thought Duluth was a climate refuge?  

Like Vermont, Duluth isn't immune to our altered environment For one thing, Duluth is having a climate change winter, big time.  This will be by far its warmest winter on record, and that has messed up the usual winter sports such as snowshoeing, ice fishing and such in the region. 

Storms can ravage Duluth, too. Flash flooding September damaged parts of the city and an even worse flood in 2012 caused widespread damage in and around the city. An intense storm in October, 2018, sent Lake Superior waves crashing into shoreline parks and property causing quite a bit of destruction, too. 

Here's the Daily Show Duluth climate video. It is pretty funny, in the usual Daily Show snarky way. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that: