[vidarh]

Most of the worlds largest cities are near the coasts. And weather systems hundreds of km from coastal areas are still affected by things like ocean currents that affect the temperature. E.g. weather in large parts of North Western Europe is substantially warmer than you'd expect because of this.

So on one hand expect large scale migrations and/or massively expensive programs to mitigate the problems. On the other hand expect far more extreme weather far inland.

The idea it will only affect coastal cities is a dangerous one.

[ummonk]

>Most of the worlds largest cities are near the coasts.

There are some cities (New Orleans, Venice, Boston to an extent, to name a few), which are highly vulnerable to sea level rise, but most coastal cities are at high enough elevation that a sea level rise of a few meters wouldn't be the end of the world - it would require better levees, dikes, etc.

Contrast with such risks as increased capability of biological warfare, the persistent risk of nuclear warfare, or, ecologically, declining natural forestation and vegetation due to heavy use of land for cultivated agriculture.

As for extreme weather, it's not like the Earth naturally has less extreme weather at colder temperatures. Warmer temperatures will cause changes in weather patterns, and some places are getting more extreme weather than before, but there is no reason it will be net worse for the whole world.

[vidarh]

Not that simple. It's not just about managing a few meters, but managing a few meters increase in worst case. E.g for London a few meters is a minor problem in normal situations, but a few meters in worst case situations have potentially dramatic impact on costs to upgrade the Thames Barrier, and will have dramatic impact in terms of how large areas downstream of London will get flooded if the Thames Barrier needs to be closed.

A lot of cities face issues with follow on effects like that.

It won't be 'the end of the world' if its just a few meters, but it is still enough that cities like London face multi billion flood defence upgrades, and towns housing hundreds of thousands will face increased flood risks as a consequence of anything done to upgrade the defences.

And you're severely underestimating the direct damage. Many of the highest population density areas in the world are at risk,and many of the areas at worst risk are also among the poorest, like Bangladesh.

As for extreme weather, yes indications are that we're heading for more overall extreme weather, not just changes.

[erikpukinskis]

There’s a lot of money to be made by government contractors who are prepared.