CLIMATE EVACUATION
Image: by Gray Scott - Midjourney AI
Let Matthew my AI assistant read this 03:57 minute article to you.
Climate evacuation will be the new uber-luxury service for vacation travel in the future.
Climate change has begun a new age of high-risk travel and the climate crisis does not care about your refund. It does not care if you “believe” in climate change or if you think gay space lasers are causing all the drama. The wildfires will burn and the flooding will happen regardless of your beliefs.
According to an article by the Washington Post, “Wildfires raging across the popular Greek vacation island of Rhodes prompted authorities to evacuate 19,000 tourists and residents.”
Nearly 31 million people in 2020 were displaced within their own countries because of disasters according to IDMC's Global Report on Internal Displacement and almost 3 million Americans were displaced by disasters in 2023 alone.
Planning a glamping trip to Iceland? A much-needed vacation to Greece? Celebrating your 25th wedding anniversary with a trip to Hawaii? You will be risking your life if you book travel in the future without some form of climate evacuation insurance or service. If your resort island begins to burn or a mudslide takes out the local power supply, travel insurance won’t be enough.
Image: by Gray Scott - Midjourney AI
What will you do if you are caught in a crowd of ten thousand tourists who have lost their passports, clad in nothing but their swimsuits and charred Gucci sandals?
Airports will be chaotic if not closed, roads will be blocked and local water supply may not be safe to drink.
You’re going to need a helicopter. A personal drone. A team of ex-Navy Seals with the training to pull you and your family out of danger and fast. A climate evacuation in the midst of a raging wildfire or flash flood event takes experienced trained personnel and money. Lots of money.
Climate evacuation is just another element of a chaotic future filled with income inequality. Feeling remorse for the people left behind won’t stop affluent people from fleeing using extraction services. And if you are lucky enough to be able to afford it in the future you will use it too.
Of course, in the beginning, climate evacuation will be outrageously expensive and reserved for the wealthiest among us. It will be the most exclusive travel accessory in the future and the people who can afford it will use it because it will save their lives.
The moral and philosophical implications of climate evacuations are tremendous and complex but climate change is not going away so we will need to ask ourselves some deeply distressing questions about who we are and what we are capable of doing in emergency situations.
Existing services like Global Rescue already provide rescue services similar to what I am describing here although they do not yet list climate evacuation or extraction as a specific service. According to their website, “We’re the red button you push in an emergency. Our team of medical and security experts — staffed by veteran Navy Seals, Army Rangers, Air Force Pararescue, Defense Intelligence Agency Analysts, paramedics, and physicians— come through for you when it matters most.”
However, I predict that we will see more of these high-end exclusive extraction services like RIPCORD by REDPOINT begin to become more abundant and popular in the near future as the climate begins to become even more unpredictable and volatile. We will also see new technologies like personal vertical lift drones that can access remote and dangerous terrain that may be too risky for helicopters to land.
Image: by Gray Scott - Midjourney AI
We are facing a future filled with extreme heat domes, flash wildfires like the recent wildfire in Maui’s historic Lahaina community, and flash floods that will wipe out entire towns.
In the near future, these climate evacuation services will also become a standard for our homes.
Unfortunately, climate evacuation and climate migration are coming to a town near you very soon.