12-16-2009, 04:54 PM
Quote:Historically, no, they do stay and die. I can't think of any large population that has up and moved over a significant geography due to issues with climate (or other natural challenges for that matter).Well, I think you might want to go back through the annals of archaeology - people move due to significant climate and geography changes all the time, throughout history. Soil depletes? Move. River floods? Move. Ice age hits? Move. Bering ice bridge forms? Move. Forest chopped down? Move. And so on, and so forth.
However, that's not the point for modern civilization. There are only a handful of countries in the far North (and only 2 in the far South) and they're all among the richest in the world - none are poor. Are modern Scandinavians, Canadians, Americans and Scots really analogous to the people who have historically died from famines, who could not afford to move? I would tend to think they are not, and have ample resources to relocate, or simply pay the extra heating costs.
If push really comes to shove, give them an extra tax credit. We're not talking about multiplying energy prices by a thousand or anything - this is essentially a carbon tax, not a ban on all heating.
-Jester