As climate change hurts other states, Kentucky must prepare as climate refugee zone.

On Tuesday, the Lexington Fire Department responded to a complaint about smoke in my neighborhood. It was easy to smell. As a forester, I know the odor of a forest fire. But this fire was in Oregon, 2,300 miles away. The fires raging in the west and worldwide are a direct result of a warming earth caused by burning of fossil fuels. Smoke from these fires is blanketing the earth as never before, a clear measure of the climate crisis we are in.

Kentuckians may feel that we are insulated from the perils of climate change. Yes, we are getting smoke from western fires. But we are having a cool summer. Over the last few years, our night temperatures have increased, our growing seasons are longer, but we have not had temperature extremes like much of the world. We are in a pluvial — a longterm period of excess rain that has lasted at least 13 years. Every farmer and gardener is aware of this, as are my friends who have lost houses to floods.

Kentucky remains a good place to live. And that is the problem. Last year, I met a couple who were building a house in Jessamine County. They were moving here from Miami Beach. Why? As they explained, they wanted to sell their Florida house while it was still worth more than a nickel. I do not think they are the only ones.

We can, and will, solve the climate crisis by rapidly moving to renewable energy from fossil fuels — this is already happening. Solar and wind energy are cheaper than any other from of energy, providing economic incentives for this shift. But we are acting too slowly. Sea level will rise and drive people away from coasts — this is already happening. Drought and fire will drive people away from the west — this is already happening. Millions of people will need to relocate.

Kentucky is an attractive place for these climate refugees, as my Florida friends show. We need to consciously prepare for a population increase as these refugees realize that we have a lot to offer. How do we prepare for thousands of new people?

First, it does not benefit us to become a refuge only for wealthy white people like my Florida friends. We need to be welcoming to all people. They will need jobs, housing, and support.

Second, our rural counties need serious zoning reform. We need to protect our precious farmland and forests. When I had a farm in Garrard County, I saw the damage of unconstrained growth when there is no zoning. Most Kentucky counties have little or no zoning. Lexington has successfully, so far, constrained growth within the urban service boundary, but we are not prepared to handle a large influx of people without breaking that boundary, and gobbling up our irreplaceable farmland.

Kentucky has some important things to offer as part of the solution to climate change. Our forests and farms remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in trees and soil. This helps to reduce the impacts of fossil fuel combustion, though it does not offer a solution — we still need to shed our fossil fuel addiction. Nevertheless, we cannot afford to destroy our natural resources to welcome more people.

We need state and local decision making to welcome climate refugees, while not destroying the magnificent beauty of our state. We can’t just allow these changes to happen, or we will create chaos. We urgently need state and local governments, citizen organizations, and corporations to recognize that we have an impending problem, perhaps a crisis. It is perhaps not in our tradition to anticipate and plan for a crisis, but we need to do it.

Make no mistake. This process has already begun, and we need to get ahead of refugee relocation well before it gets out of our control.

Tom Kimmerer, PhD, is a forest scientist and author. He can be contacted at his website, www.kimmerer.com.