Retreat in Rodanthe
By Jahi Chikwendiu 03/13/23
Along three blocks in a North Carolina beach town, severe erosion is upending life, forcing hard choices and offering a glimpse of the dilemmas other coastal communities will face
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MIGRATION
MIGRATION
Climate change has already and will continue to fundamentally shift the movements of all life on Earth. Already, 1% of the Earth is considered a “barely livable” hot-zone, but by 2070 that proportion could rise to 19%. The environmental instability that drives human migration also remakes the migration patterns of animals. Entire ecosystems are either transforming or collapsing and these changes reverberate throughout the animal kingdom—human society is no exception. With climate migration comes societal transformation and the acute need for capable leadership who can prepare for these inevitable changes.
Migration, whether human or animal, is symptomatic of the holistic transformation of Earth’s ecosystems. Migration is a logical effect of a changed environmental landscape. However, the extent to which the landscape is changed is hugely dependent on carbon emissions, which is hugely dependent on whether or not policies are passed that structurally enforce a rapid decline in emissions.
Coastal areas in the United States are especially at risk of climate change driven extreme weather events.
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KEY RESOURCES
Climate Change and Displaced Persons – University Network for Human Rights
10/06/22
As severe weather patterns intensify, climate change will continue to displace more communities across the globe. Through our analysis, we develop seven concrete reforms for US immigration and climate policy which extend protections to those…
What Are Climate Migrants and Where Are They Moving?
10/06/22
It's easy to look at climate change as an eventual problem instead of a current one. The reality, though, is that climate shifts and weather events are already driving people all over the U.S. –…
World Migration Report 2020
06/01/21
Since 2000, IOM has been producing world migration reports. The World Migration Report 2020, the tenth in the world migration report series, has been produced to contribute to increased understanding of migration throughout the world.…
New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States
11/28/20
According to new data from the Rhodium Group analyzed by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, warming temperatures and changing rainfall will drive agriculture and temperate climates northward, while sea level rise will consume…
The Great Climate Migration
07/23/20
This article, the first in a series on global climate migration, is a partnership between ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, with support from the Pulitzer Center.
Climate Change and Migration
03/18/20
The topic of climate change and migration attracts a strong following from the media and produces an increase in academic literature and reports from international governmental institutions and NGOs.
Migration and the climate crisis: the UN’s search for solutions
03/18/20
Throughout human history, migration and climate have always been connected, but in the modern era, the impacts of the man-made climate crisis are likely to extensively change the patterns of human settlement.
The climate crisis, migration, and refugees
03/18/20
The following is one of eight briefs commissioned for the 16th annual Brookings Blum Roundtable, “2020 and beyond: Maintaining the bipartisan narrative on US global development.”
Where will you go when sea-level rise floods your city? This map shows you
03/18/20
A new study models future migration patterns in the U.S. as the sea level continues rising.
Modeling migration patterns in the USA under sea level rise
01/22/20
Sea level rise in the United States will lead to large scale migration in the future. We propose a framework to examine future climate migration patterns using models of human migration. Our framework requires that…
MORE NEWS
Americans are fleeing climate change — here’s where they can go
By Lindsey Jacobson 04/21/22
Millions of Americans are living in communities with precarious climate conditions, in houses that feel overpriced. There is a solution for many of these people, though: Move to one of the so-called climate havens.
Read more The Next American Migration: What Cities Should Know About Climate Change and Populations on the Move
04/21/22
Climate change is no longer just a problem for future generations – it is here now, with storms, wildfires, droughts and extreme temperatures becoming more prevalent in our cities, towns and villages. As these impacts…
Read more What Cities Should Know About Climate Change and Populations on the Move
By Anna Marandi and Kelly Leilani 04/21/22
Americans have historically been some of the most mobile people in the world, continually seeking better housing and job opportunities. However, in recent years, mobility — particularly among young Americans — has slowed, due largely…
Read more As climate fears mount, some in U.S. are deciding to relocate
By Jon Hurdle 03/24/22
As wildfires worsen and sea levels rise, a small but growing number of Americans are choosing to move to places such as New England or the Appalachian Mountains that are seen as safe havens from…
Read more The first step to preparing for surging climate migration? Defining it
By Ari Shapiro 02/23/22
There are calls to better define what constitutes "climate migration" amid concern that policies are not keeping up with the growing issue and countries are failing to properly help those fleeing disasters.
Read more Plants at risk of extinction as climate crisis disrupts animal migration
By Hibaq Farah 01/13/22
The decline of seed-dispersing animals is damaging plants’ ability to adapt to climate breakdown, a study has found. Almost half of all plant species depend on animals to spread their seeds, but scientists fear these…
Read more As temperatures rise, crossing into the US will become even more deadly
By Mark Armao 12/21/21
When undocumented migrants cross the U.S.–Mexico border into southern Arizona, they face a perilous journey through the Sonoran Desert, some of the most inhospitable terrain in North America. Summer temperatures in the region routinely top…
Read more The Migrant Workers Who Follow Climate Disasters
By Sarah Stillman 11/01/21
Bellaliz Gonzalez had never heard of Midland, Michigan, before a white van dropped her off there in late May, 2020. The journey from her home in Miami, with twelve colleagues, had taken around twenty-two hours.…
Read more Facing floods and fires, undocumented immigrants have nowhere to turn for help
By María Paula Rubiano A. 10/12/21
When Hurricane Ida hit New York City on September 16, it dumped more than three inches of rain an hour. Sewers overflowed, streets turned into rivers, and thousands of homes and basements across the city’s…
Read more The US Can’t Deport Its Way Out of the Climate Migration Crisis
By Dr. Mila Turner 10/02/21
The US has begun to forcibly expel hundreds of Haitian asylum seekers and other migrants, returning them to the dire economic, political, and climate crises from which they fled. The US plan to repatriate over 12,000 more individuals in…
Read more Climate Change is Fueling a Wave of Migration, Study Finds
By Kate Zerrenner 09/17/21
Global leaders will convene in New York City for Climate Week next week, and environmental justice is again one of the main themes for discussion. The timing of the event comes on the heels of a new World…
Read more Mother Nature and migration are inextricably linked
By Marshall Terrill 09/17/21
Climate migration is expected to displace more than 200 million people in the next three decades, according to a recent World Bank report.
Read more Climate migration is already happening — for homeowners who can afford it
By Salvador Rodriguez 09/16/21
For those who are already feeling the direct impact of global warming and can afford to relocate, climate change migration has begun.
Read more What part of the US is safest from climate change?
By Camille Squires 09/04/21
The storms, floods, heat, and fires that have ravaged the US in 2021 have made the ongoing climate crisis feel especially acute for citizens across the country. And the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…
Read more Increasing urban density could reduce climate change
By Dan Grossman 09/02/21
States are starting to re-think the American dream of white picket fences as they build housing with the idea of reducing carbon emissions.
Read more Fleeing Disaster Is Hard. Climate Change Is Making It Harder
By Matt Simon 09/01/21
In Louisiana, Hurricane Ida made landfall on Sunday, devastating communities with 150-mile-per-hour winds and towering storm surges. And in California, the Caldor Fire, which has burned 320 square miles and destroyed over 700 structures, rapidly…
Read more Climate change be damned. More Americans are moving to high-risk areas
By Vanessa Yurkevich 08/25/21
Seventeen years ago, when Adriana Nichols moved from New York City to Los Angeles, she had a simple wish list: natural light (her New York studio apartment was dark), a yard and quiet neighbors. She…
Read more Populations in high-risk climate areas grow: Redfin
By Lexi Lonas 08/25/21
Populations in areas of the United States at high risk for climate disasters are growing, according to an analysis done by real estate listing service Redfin.
Read more Climate and refugee organizations say Biden has power to help address climate change-driven displacement
By Rebecca Morin 08/02/21
A cross section of refugee and climate organizations say President Joe Biden can help address refugees driven from their homelands by climate change-related factors by using a number of actions at his disposal.
Read more To Flee, or to Stay Until the End and Be Swallowed by the Sea
By Dalia Faheid, Katie Livingstone 07/18/21
The Rev. Roch Naquin grew up on this island along the Louisiana coast, trapping muskrats and mink in the marsh beyond his family’s home and cutting firewood from a stand of oak trees.
Read more This Louisiana neighborhood is retreating in the face of climate change
By Alexandria Herr 06/03/21
In early May, President Joe Biden stood in front of the 70-year old Calcasieu River Bridge in Lake Charles, Louisiana. With the aging bridge in the background, he spoke about the hurricanes that have battered…
Read more Extreme Weather Displaces Record Numbers of People as Temperatures Rise
By Deutsche Welle 05/21/21
Storms, floods, wildfires and droughts drove more than 30 million people from their homes last year, as rising temperatures wrought extra chaos on the climate, according to a report published Thursday by the Internal Displacement…
Read more Climate Migration May Lead to the Next Great Housing Crisis
04/23/21
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels.
Read more Freshwater fish are in “catastrophic” decline with one-third facing extinction, report finds
By Sophie Lewis 02/23/21
Thousands of fish species are facing "catastrophic" decline — threatening the health, food security and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people around the world. New research shows that one-third of all freshwater fish now…
Read more As Biden Seeks Answers on Climate’s Impact on Migration, Sydney Declaration Provides Legal Ground Rules for Action
By Jane McAdam 02/19/21
In an executive order earlier this month, President Joe Biden ordered a report into “climate change and its impact on migration, including forced migration, internal displacement, and planned relocation,” including “options for protection and resettlement…
Read more Climate Migration Needs Personal Stories
By Cameron Ramey 01/05/21
Reporting personal stories illustrating the impacts of climate change bears importance beyond feeding reader interest or even good journalism practice. Personal stories give a human face to one of the most tangible consequences of unmitigated…
Read more New maps document big-game migrations across the western United States
11/12/20
For the first time, state and federal wildlife biologists have come together to map the migrations of ungulates across America's West. The maps will help land managers and conservationists pinpoint actions necessary to keep migration…
Read more How Climate Migration Will Reshape America
By Abrahm Lustgarten 09/15/20
August besieged California with a heat unseen in generations. A surge in air-conditioning broke the state’s electrical grid, leaving a population already ravaged by the coronavirus to work remotely by the dim light of their…
Read more Climate change could lead to mass migration as people head north to survive
By Abrahm Lustgarten 07/30/20
The Earth's temperature is expected to drastically increase over the next 50 years, which will likely force entire nations of people to travel north for survival. ProPublica senior environmental reporter Abrahm Lustgarten mapped out what…
Read more Climate Change Will Drive People Across Borders
By Sonia Shah 07/29/20
Extreme wildfires savaged Northern California in 2018, leaving the homeless to camp out in a Home Depot parking lot in Oakland, not far from the billionaire hub of Silicon Valley. Hurricane Irma displaced more than…
Read more Believe It Or Not, Forests Migrate — But Not Fast Enough For Climate Change
By Ari Shapiro 07/28/20
We're all familiar with migration: Wildebeests gallop across Africa, Monarch butterflies flit across the Americas ... but did you know that forests migrate, too?
Read more Climate change-influenced refugee crisis may lead to long-term settlement issues
By Matt Swayne 07/27/20
Computer models may reveal that climate change prompts a more nuanced circular migration pattern.
Read more Behind the Cover: Climate Migration
By Kathy Ryan 07/24/20
This week’s cover story focuses on the disruptive scale of migration that may be approaching because of climate change. The photojournalist Meridith Kohut photographed an Indigenous agricultural worker, Martín Yat Chen, who is squatting on…
Read more The Great Climate Migration
By Abrahm Lustgarten 07/23/20
Early in 2019, a year before the world shut its borders completely, Jorge A. knew he had to get out of Guatemala. The land was turning against him. For five years, it almost never rained.
Read more The Great Climate Migration Has Begun
07/23/20
New research suggests climate change will cause humans to move in unprecedented numbers. The Times Magazine partnered with ProPublica and data scientists to understand how...
Read more Climate woes growing for women, hit worst by displacement and migration
By Megan Rowling 07/07/20
From sexual violence in displacement camps to extra farm work and greater risk of illness, women shoulder a bigger burden from worsening extreme weather and other climate pressures pushing people to move for survival, a…
Read more 50 Years From Now, Many Densely Populated Parts of the World Could be Too Hot for Humans
By Bob Berwyn 05/04/20
A new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows a "surprisingly narrow" human climate niche—between 52 degrees Fahrenheit to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. And it will shift geographically more in…
Read more Extreme weather exiles: how climate change is turning Europeans into migrants
By Marta Rodriguez Martinez & Lillo Montalto Monella 03/12/20
Climate change could leave you homeless overnight – right here, in Europe. Flash floods, mudslides and wildfires triggered by heatwaves are among the extreme weather events becoming increasingly common, thanks to climate change.
Read more The climate crisis is now a bigger threat to humanity than war
By Liam Pritchett 03/04/20
The ongoing climate crisis is causing more displacement and forced migration—through climate change-related natural disasters—than conflict and violence.
Read more Is the World Ignoring Climate Change Migrants?
By Reiss Edwards 02/27/20
There are millions of people on this planet today already directly affected by climate change. While large swathes of the global population are currently buffered from the immediate impacts of climate change on their daily…
Read more How Warming Winters Are Affecting Everything Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email
By Lauren Sommer, Mose Buchele 02/18/20
Winters are warming faster than other seasons across much of the United States. While that may sound like a welcome change for those bundled in scarves and hats, it's causing a cascade of unpredictable impacts…
Read more Climate Change Is Altering Migration Patterns Regionally and Globally
By Jayla Lundstrom 12/03/19
Since at least 2014, a growing number of asylum-seekers from Central America have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border. While the response from the Obama administration raised genuine protection concerns, the Trump administration has taken the…
Read more Climate Change Is Already Driving Mass Migration Around the Globe
By Jeff Turrentine 01/25/19
Given the oversize role that migration plays in our current political discourse, you’d think there would be more emphasis on the one factor military and security experts believe will affect future migration patterns more than…
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