[ck2]

I really do not understand how creatures like humans who can understand and plan for things build cities in flood zones, wildfire zones, earthquake zones, below sealevel, etc.

It's not like the death of the sun or heat death of universe where it's a billion years outside of your lifetime, it's going to happen in your lifetime.

The "oh well what can you do" response leads me to believe we aren't going to do a damn thing about runaway climate change.

[nostrademons]

Your commute happens about 250 days every year. A big earthquake happens maybe once ever 30 years. Buying a house takes 30 years to pay off. There's a limited supply of land; if all the houses in safe zones are taken, it may be worth it to some people to roll the dice on a house with natural hazards that's cheaper yet still close to everything. They're optimizing for the common case.

[kstrauser]

I’ve lived in blizzard territory and tornado alley. I have friends in hurricane zones. Parts of the US want to cook you alive. There’s nowhere in the country without something or another trying to kill you.

[pests]

Michigan is pretty safe. We get tornados but that's about it. Not much poisonous or dangerous wildlife besides bears - just stay out of the wilderness.

Not to mention a huge supply of fresh water.

[fragmede]

> Michigan is pretty safe.

> We get tornados but that's about it.

those two things seem at odds.

[pests]

Haha. I should say "other areas" in Michigan - 35 years here and I've never seen one with my own eye besides some ambiguous scary looking clouds.

[Exuma]

Crippling boredom

[aifooh7Keew6xoo]

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead

When the skies of November turn gloomy

[rerdavies]

Winter probably kills more people than earthquakes.

[pests]

It's a slow danger most of the time. People have time to prepare or leave. Earthquakes are very sudden.

[nostrademons]

...and surprisingly non-lethal, at least for the M6.5-7ish earthquakes in developed countries, similar to what would hit SF.

Loma Prieta killed 63 people. Northridge killed 57. The 2011 Christchurch earthquake killed 185. By contrast, about 30 people die every year from cold, 134 from heat, 44 from being hit by lightning, 85 from flooding, 69 from tornadoes [1], 103 from mass shootings, 21K from gun-related homicide, 26K from gun-related suicide [2], 70K from fentanyl [3], and 280K from obesity [4]. For completeness, excluding 9/11 about 15 people die per year from terrorism [5], with median 2 and mode 0.

Note the 3-order-of-magnitude difference between headline-worthy deaths like natural disasters and terrorism, vs. slow dangers like homicide, suicide, overdose, or obesity. You're about 7 times more likely to die from being struck by lightning than an earthquake.

[1] https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Which-Kills-More-People-Ex...

[2] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-...

[3] https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overd...

[4] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/192032

[5] https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_AmericanTerrorismDeaths...

[aifooh7Keew6xoo]

Don't forget high deserts! You can get snowed in, drowned in a flood, cooked alive and then run down by a 30 mile an hour fire storm all in the same day if you're lucky!

[nonrepeating]

I’m always amused by Americans (and I am one) who think our weather is so great, when we actually have the worst overall weather on Earth.

[saagarjha]

Some parts of the US have some of the nicest weather in the world. Say, Santa Barbara or San Diego.

[kstrauser]

San Francisco has a reputation for being cold. It’s just that we have the air conditioning running all the time. It’s basically sunny, low of 55°, high of 72°, year round. Twice a year it’ll get cold. A week a year it’ll get hot.

It’s the best weather anywhere to show off your nice jacket.

[saagarjha]

SF is foggy or cloudy like half the days of the year

[KerrAvon]

There are nice spots on the coasts.

[atomicnumber3]

Some humans do, at least. I've read about there being stones in lakes or rivers that basically say "btw if you see this stone, you're as fucked as we were in the year 300AD" or something.

And in Japan there's those old stone marker monuments telling people not to build below them because of tsunamis or floods or something to that effect.

But I mean I guess when it's as desirable property as the SF Bay Area, the fact that you lose the building on it every hundred years or so is a small price to pay?

[pests]

It seems everyone in this thread is forgetting humans only live 100 years.

If an event happens every 250 years on average - thats 10 generations of humans.

There are stories told by old Indigenous peoples in Canada and the Western USA about the Cascadia Fault which will wreck the PNW west of Interstate 5, estimated to happen every 500 years, last happened in 1700s. But they are just that - vague stories. Who is listening to them?

If 10 generations of a family can live in one spot for 250 years with no issues - it might be pretty hard to convince them they have to leave.

[mrexroad]

If you’re bored, checkout renderings/maps of California during the Great Flood of 1862! My favorite trivia about that event was that the native Americans warned the settlers and relocated their villages to the hills just prior to the atmospheric rivers. If memory serves, Meteorologists / Atmospheric Scientists didn’t even have a name for them until the 1990s.

With the increasing frequency of “100 year storm”, “200 year fire”, “250 year flood” … it’s pretty unfortunate we’re so terrible at contextualizing event types that haven’t already directly impacted our own lives. Of course paranoia-prepping isn’t really useful, but it’s dumbfounding that preparation isn’t a given.

[pests]

I'll check it out, thanks!

It is pretty unfortunate, but I don't blame people. Imagine your grandfather telling you stories about his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather dealing with a great flood... they would just be legends.

[jimmcslim]

The “hunger stones” https://heritagetribune.eu/europe/morbid-medieval-messages-a...

[toast0]

Some of those zones aren't static. Some of those zones are discovered after people have made a life there and getting people to leave an area where they've made a life is hard.

If you live somewhere with strong earthquakes on a regular basis and enforcable building codes, chances are most of the buildings will withstand a pretty good earthquake, but a really big one will cause trouble.

Areas without regular strong earthquakes are likely to be caught by surprise, although newer buildings are likely to do ok, if they enforce international standard building codes; IBC is good for reasonable earthquakes, but not for extreme earthquakes (earthquake prone areas have additional requirements). Areas without enforcable building codes unfortunately aren't going to be well prepared, it costs more to build buildings that won't fall over in a nearby 4.0, especially if they're taller than one story.

[Loughla]

It's too abstract.

Person is good at planning for abstract problems, because person controls their income, expenses, and priorities.

People are terrible at planning for abstract problems because it's collective resources and collective solutions requiring agreement from multiple parties who, inherently, have different and often conflicting priorities.

In other words, until the planet crashes and kills a vast, vast majority of us, we are going to carry on like we always have. It's depressing.

[Aeolun]

Even if it does happen in your lifetime. Do not underestimate the power of convenience.

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/tsunami-stones-ancien...

[dylan604]

>I really do not understand

money money money, MONEY! seems pretty simple to me

[aifooh7Keew6xoo]

Well, it usually beats homelessness or rent slavery.