I wish it was that simple.

Most large (and probably majority of small) cities experience this phenomena to some degree, most noticeable are ones that have aging architecture that wasn’t built to accommodate the ever growing heat.

It’s not even a question of using blackout blinds or putting UV reflective film on your windows or painting the roof white or even running the AC for as long as your wallet will allow you to.

The walls get hot. The ground gets hot. The roofs get hot. The air itself is hot. And it’s getting hotter (referring to the last decade+ as a trend)

Any reflective surface gets progressively more aggressive (glare and redirected heat) and anything that is not reflective is absorbing the heat at unprecedented levels the stronger the sun rays get, any dwellings not specifically engineered to deal with any of these heat phenomena are subjecting its dwellers to the consequences of not having any policies that would force these dwellings to be habitable in summer months.

This isn’t a problem that can be solved by simply packing my shit and moving, this is a systemic problem that we’re (more or less world wide) failing to address since the whole global warming thing is not being actioned at nearly the urgency it warrants.

With all the above said, there’s also the question of job availability and housing affordability, which is adding extra layers to this already delightful shit cake.

In short: It’s not that I don’t want to live with the penguins and caribou as my neighbours, it’s that I can’t afford to.