One of the certain consequences of climate change is that it will change the relative prospects and appeal of living in different areas, both in the short-term as acute incidents like wildfires and floods occur and long-term as agricultural productivity, water availability, and sea level shift.
This is a reason why climate justice activists see migrant rights as fundamentally linked to the fight against climate change. Theoretically, it could also be a motivation for conservatives who are skeptical about large-scale and uncontrolled migration to do more about limiting how badly we damage the climate.
The scale of movement driven by climate disasters is already substantial, exceeding the level of internal displacement caused by war according to the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Even in rich countries, a large scale managed retreat from coastal areas may be forced by storms and rising seas — a development that hasn’t yet percolated into the thinking of citizens and politicians.
Related:
- Global warming damage curves
- The environment as a security matter
- Minimum temperatures
- Desalination
- Small island states under threat
- Coral reefs and climate change
- Hydroelectricity and bare winter mountaintops
- Hurricanes and climate change action
- Defending the Netherlands from flooding
- Climate change and salt water infiltration
- Sea level rise and coastal property values
- The possibility of rapid sea level rise
- Why climate change could be catastrophic
- CO2 and the formation of the Antarctic ice sheet
- Climate change and food production
- Climate change and animal migrations
- Latent heat and storms
- Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor
- Inequality, entitlement, and the breakdown of social cohesion
Prepare for mass migration to cities in climate crisis, UK mayors warn
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/16/prepare-for-mass-migration-to-cities-in-climate-crisis-uk-mayors-warn
Sadiq Khan and Marvin Rees call for action as major report launched during UN Migration Week
Cities are abandoning homes that will be destroyed by climate change | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/grand-forks-demolishing-homes-1.6362428
Australia is battered by catastrophic floods
Freakish weather is becoming increasingly common
…
A debate now rages about how or even whether places like Lismore should rebuild. Analysts think the floods might trigger insurance claims worth more than A$3bn. Premiums are already so high in disaster-prone towns that many locals can no longer afford cover. Some politicians would like the government to pay companies to insure houses that will inevitably be struck by future fires or floods, as it does in the cyclone-bashed Northern Territory. “If we are going to start thinking every time there’s a natural disaster that we have to give up and leave because it’s too hard, then where are we going to live?” asks Lismore’s mayor, Steve Krieg. That is becoming a question for ever more Australians.
Florida is still “prey” and “spoil” but to many more people than Ms Stowe could have imagined. Florida’s rapid growth has defied expectation and even reason. Replete with swampland and whipped repeatedly by extreme weather, Florida is among America’s least hospitable long-term habitats for humans, yet they continue to flock there. “There are two overwhelming conclusions we’ve drawn about migration to Florida: people know the risk and they move there anyway,” says Glenn Kelman, boss of RedFin, an online property firm.
https://www.economist.com/special-report/2022/03/30/what-florida-can-teach-america
Hotter than Dubai: US cities at risk of Middle Eastern temperatures by 2100
Unchecked global heating will bring once unthinkable extreme heat, with 16 US cities to rival summer highs seen in Middle East
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/01/us-cities-risk-middle-eastern-temperatures-by-2100-climate-crisis
People in communities threatened by natural disasters might have to consider moving, minister says | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fiona-climate-change-relocation-maritimes-1.6614604
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The uninsurables: how storms and rising seas are making coastlines unliveable | Coastlines | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/13/the-uninsurables-how-storms-and-rising-seas-are-making-coastlines-unlivable
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People in communities threatened by natural disasters might have to consider moving, minister says | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fiona-climate-change-relocation-maritimes-1.6614604
3 tribes dealing with the toll of climate change get $75 million to relocate : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/01/1139949450/tribes-climate-change-relocation-department-of-interior
Climate disasters displacing millions in the U.S.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/power-switch/2023/02/06/climate-disasters-displacing-millions-in-the-u-s-00081297
The world is on track for 2.7C of heating with current action plans and this would mean 2 billion people experiencing average annual temperatures above 29C by 2030, a level at which very few communities have lived in the past.
Up to 1 billion people could choose to migrate to cooler places, the scientists said, although those areas remaining within the climate niche would still experience more frequent heatwaves and droughts.
However, urgent action to lower carbon emissions and keep global temperature rise to 1.5C would cut the number of people pushed outside the climate niche by 80%, to 400 million
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/22/global-heating-human-climate-niche