The
untold story of climate migration—the personal stories of those
experiencing displacement, the portraits of communities being torn
apart by disaster, and the implications for all of us as we confront
a changing future.
When the subject of migration that will be caused by global
climate change comes up in the media or in conversation, we often
think of international refugees—those from foreign countries who
will emigrate to the United States to escape disasters like rising
shorelines and famine. What many people don’t realize though, is
that climate migration is happening now—and within the borders of
the United States.
A human-centered narrative with national scope, The Great
Displacement is the first book to report on climate migration in
the US. From half-drowned Louisiana to fire-scorched California, from
the dried-up cotton fields of Arizona to the soaked watersheds of
inland North Carolina, people are moving. In the last decade alone,
the federal government has sponsored the relocation of tens of
thousands of families away from flood zones, and tens of thousands
more have moved of their own accord in the aftermath of natural
disasters. Insurance and mortgage markets are already shifting to
reflect mounting climate risk, pushing more people away from their
homes. Rising seas have already begun to sink eastern coastal cities,
while extreme heat, unprecedented drought, and unstoppable wildfires
plague the west.
Over the next fifty years, millions of Americans will be caught up
in this churn of displacement created by climate change, forced
inland and northward in what will be the largest national migration
we’ve yet to experience. The Great Displacement compassionately
tells the stories of those who are already experiencing life on the
move, while detailing just how radically climate change will
transform our lives—forcing us out of the country’s hardest-hit
areas, uprooting countless communities, and prompting a massive
migration that will fundamentally reshape the United States.