I have been arguing for five years now that urbanization will protect us from many of the blows that climate change will cause. Cities (relative farming) have an edge in adapting to climate change. Cities always compete for talent. Those cities that figure out how to adapt (either due to natural advantage or good ideas) will thrive and will attract talent. This competition will protect footloose urbanites. An urbanized world will suffer less from climate change and this is especially the case in world featuring economic growth. Economic development through urban growth is our best defense for adapting to climate change. You can read my thoughts here and here.
I have also done recent work that liberal Democrats are more likely to live in center cities while Republicans tend to be in the suburbs and this suburban group will have to pay more for carbon legislation because they live a more carbon intensive lifestyle than tofu eating walkers who live in small apartments in downtown San Fran. These spatial lifestyle patterns provide another reason for why Republicans vote against carbon mitigation legislation. Now, Slate provides a new argument. Slate points out an irony that farmers tend to be Republicans and that their districts tend to oppose carbon mitigation even though the claim is that they will suffer the most from climate change. First, it should be pointed out that 80% of Americans live in metropolitan areas so there are not that many Republican rural Congressmen. I agree that farming interests and ideology could have a greater impact on the Western Senators where each state just has 2 senators.
So, the irony here is that Slate wishes that Republicans voted their long run "self interest" rather than their ideology. To recap, Slate is saying that Rural Republicans will have a brighter future if they fight climate change now but that Rural Republicans are not playing ball. Does this pursuit of "ideology" over "self interest" surprise my fellow Chicago economists trained in the Becker,Stigler, Peltzman tradition?