People Build An Entire Town Underground To Escape Global Warming

It is not unusual for the temperature in South and West Australia to top 120 degrees F. Temperatures at that level began to hit in 1960. Days when the heat is that high mean people’s health is endangered. One answer is to move homes and businesses underground, where the temperature can be 60 degrees colder. This does, and will, mean a new way of building and maintaining towns and, eventually, cities.

According to the BBC, people will see an unfamiliar landscape as they approach one city. “These are the first signs of Coober Pedy, an opal mining town with a population of around 2,500 people. Many of its little peaks are the waste soil from decades of mining, but they are also evidence of another local specialty – underground living.”

Hottest Part Of Australia

Coober Pedy is in South Australia, well inland and northwest of Adelaide, the closest large city. The town’s underground homes and businesses are known as “dugouts.” It was founded in 1915. The town’s official site says, “Australia has 95% of the world’s supply of commercial opal and the largest percentage still comes from the 70 opal fields around Coober Pedy.”

Could larger cities use the same approach? Although not a perfect example, the New York Subway system has 850 miles of track, some above ground. How it would be kept cool would be an engineering marvel.

120 Degrees F

It is over 120 degrees during the hottest period of the year in Central Africa, particularly in Chad, Niger, Ethiopia, and Mali. It can also be hot in some parts of India, Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. And, as the world warms, those temperatures will only get higher.