Asheville — much to our chagrin — landed atop a list of safe places for “climate migrants” to live several years ago — and that — along with its natural attraction as a place to live — has resulted in some forecasts predicting that greater Asheville’s population will balloon by another 50,000 people by 2080.

Indeed, all counties in Western North Carolina ranked better than state and national average, but Buncombe County (including Asheville) ranked in the top 88th percentile of low-risk — in its climate — counties across the country.

The very thought of Asheville (nicknamed long ago as “The Paris of the South”) jammed with fear-driven people and never-ending traffic jams, is horrifying to contemplate. The city literally hums because of the area’s natural mountan beauty, its art deco architecture and mix of proudly individualistic and talented natives and colorful, artsy hippies.

Alas, in its Feb. 25, 2018 article about climate migration, Rolling Stone magazine identified Asheville as being among the “winners” in this movement — along with such cities as Madison, Wisconsin and Seattle, Washington — AND with a projection that Asheville would jump in both population and gross economic production. Specifically, he article forecast a 15 percent increase in the size of Asheville’s local economy. 

“Florida State University sociologist Mathew Hauer estimates that many of these climate migrants will come from such coastal cities as Miami, New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah, New York City, and Boston,” according to a recent article on the Asheville Watchdog website. “The reason: Sea levels by the end of this century are expected to rise between one and eight feet — enough to displace as many as 13 million coastal dwellers, according to Hauer’s calculations.”

However, “Asheville is not immune,” Karin Rogers, acting director of the National Environmental Modeling Center at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and author of the city’s risk assessment plan, was quoted as saying by Asheville Watchdog. “She noted that flooding (like that submerging much of Biltmore Village in 2004), wildfires (like those ravaging Chimney Rock and Lake Lure in 2016), and landslides (like those closing nearby stretches of Interstate 40 for several weeks in 2009), are harbingers of what increased temperatures are likely to bring.”

“The broader question is whether Asheville’s growing reputation as a ‘safe city’ will trigger growth that might threaten its essence [because of] new development, traffic and all the pressures attendant to growth,” said Mary Spivey, head of The Collider, according to Asheville Watchdog.

And, of course, there is the key question, as one official phrased it, of: “What do we do with the people whom we need to provide with services but they can no longer afford to live in this community?” 

To all of that, we say, “Stop!” Local officials and residents must look closely at the threat of being overrun by weather migrants, and direct them to Seattle or Madison, Wis., instead.