There is only one goddess Gaia and Al Gore is her only prophet...

[kandrathe]

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.

Well, even in the highest tides of emigration to the new world during the 1800's, many stayed behind, and where there was famine, or war, they died in large numbers. Also, the process of emigrating is not always easy, and many died trying. From an archeology perspective, population migration happens over eons or centuries where your son and his new wife live maybe a day or a weeks walk away, but are still connected to the family. Perhaps with animal transportation they may have been more loosely connected, yet tribes were connected until something catastrophic happened to break the connection. I fear what happens more often than not is that like in Pompeii, some escaped, but most were fried in a pyroclastic flow then buried under tons of ash. Just because those who might have lived there moved away, doesn't indicate an organized migration. So, what I see in the northern climates (where I've lived nearly all my life) is that people try to make living here work, even though growing seasons are inclement. Through the miracle of modern conveniences, like heat, (and sewage treatment, and medicines, and...), we suffer far less diseases than in decades past. I've tried to find some research to back up these wild claims, but alas my google-fu has failed me this afternoon. Sorry, all I've got right now are anecdotes and personal observations.

About the ban on heating... Here in my state, from late fall until late spring, the utility companies cannot shut off your power. But, come spring, if you are behind, you are cut off. And... If your power is off for more than a month, the municipalities will condemn your property as unfit to live in. Yes, it happened to someone a few blocks from me a few years ago. An older person lived there alone, and then died and the children shut the place down only to have the city threaten to condemn the place as abandoned. Of course, here if a place goes unheated for some parts of the year the pipes burst, wildlife invades, and the local yahoos throw wild spicy eggnog parties.

Relatively rich for now. Again, times change and so will the value of the CAD, or the SEK.

My perception is that it would be some what like the Little Ice Age, only it would be a lack of heat imposed by human frugality.