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Will some cities ever be uninhabitable?
+6
Submitted by zarodinu on April 6, 2026
This was primarily inspired by Phoenix. Hot, dry, no outdoors life June through September and people predict in 30 years it will be unsustainable.
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Nicosiabut also coastal cities everywhere like Amsterdam, Charleston, etc.Cities like Amsterdam and Charleston will be fine in the short run.
Due to improved technology (mostly AC), the area of the world which in inhabitable continues to grow.
Phoenix is a much better place to live today than it was 100 years ago even though it's slightly hotter now.
But Phoenix is not even close to the worst place in terms of heat. That would be areas in India and the Middle East where the wet bulb temperature stays at a dangerous level for much longer periods of time.
If people can survive there, often with inadequate AC, then they can definitely survive in Phoenix.
I imagine the number in India or Africa is much, much higher.
But this danger will tend to decrease over time as AC penetration increases. (Except in Europe maybe if they ban it).
Regulation will continue to make it impractical, leading to lower usage and 10,000s of additional deaths per year.
If all that happens at the same time, you could see something that kills hundreds of thousands of people.
But no matter what happens, deaths due to heat will remain a tiny fraction of the overall death total.
This is combined with depleted underground water tables, and then the El Niño phenomenon this year will be causing less rainfall during the Monsoons. Which the country still depends on. And then there’s extensive air and water pollution, plus mismanagement of resources in many areas.
India already has a billion people ( out of almost 1 1/2 billion) who would be classified as poor by global (average) standards. That makes it way worse.
Electricity generation will increase quickly allowing more people in Juba to run air conditioning.
Importantly, this increase will happen faster than the change in climate.
And these people are way too poor to afford hand held fans, leave alone air coolers or aircons.
The!
Sun!
Praise the Son for dying on the cross?
I'm concerned about Jakarta which is sinking and faces a lot of issues due to rising seas.
Also water scarcity is already changing a lot of plans. I think Tehran is another city that got a bleak future, not only due to war but due to groundwater depletion and heat.
Also as azerifactory said, Jakarta's sinking fast. Water quality is also awful. Might be cooked.