When and why were London, Beijing, and Denver evacuated?

Question

In Persepolis Rising there is a reference to the evacuation of London, Beijing, and Denver at some unspecified point(s) in the history of The Expanse:

She looked at them and saw all the other times children had been carried away from a disaster that was approaching and that could not be stopped: London, Beijing, Denver. History, she reminded herself, was peppered with moments like this one.

_{Persepolis Rising, Chapter 27: Drummer}

The mention of three specific cities indicates to me that Drummer is referencing event(s) that I, the reader, should be familiar with.

When did these evacuations occur and why were they needed? Were they all due to the same cause or did they occur at different points in history?

The obvious historical event in The Expanse which would cause cities to be evacuated is

the militant OPA's attack on Earth using asteroids in Nemesis Games.

However, I could find no mention of London, Beijing, or Denver being evacuated in any of the seven novels which have been released so far. The only relevant mention of any of those cities in the novels is in Babylon's Ashes, in which there is a mention that people were hoarding relief supplies in Denver.

Perhaps Drummer is referring to event(s) which were mentioned in one of the short stories (which I don't have)? Or to event(s) that happened in real life?

Answer 1

As I don't think Drummer would be referencing history as far back as WW II, it's likely these are simply throwaway worldbuilding references. You can certainly infer that they had to do with the catastrophic climate change that Earth suffered in The Expanse timeline - not solely sea level rise - as it's the most commonly reference change in the global culture and environment (so vast that it precipitated an entire shift in world governing).

Answer 2

I believe there may be two "Expanse based" reasons for the evacuations of London, Beijing and Denver.

1. Perhaps a result of military conflict between Earth and Mars during the Martian push for independence from "Earth rule" which predates book 1 Leviathan Wakes. Even though there are no direct references of specific attacks on those Earth cities in the books there are a lot of references to Martian Marines training at 1g, giving the impression of preparation and willingness to put Martian Marine Corp boots on Earth soil. Perhaps Martian bombing Earth with conventional weapons occurred.

2. Perhaps a response to the Free Navy dropping rocks onto Earth during book 5 Nemesis Games.

Of course, there are lots of other possible reasons for evacuation that are not "Expanse based" such as an Earther caused hazard such as a nuclear contamination (accident or intentional)(anyone remember Chernobyl?) or biohazard/pandemic. Us clever monkeys tend to do really dumb things.