The Great Displacement

The ΓÇ£closely observed,compassionateand far-sightedΓÇ¥ (Elizabeth KolbertPulitzer PrizeΓÇôwinning author of Under a White Sky) story of climate migration in the United StatesΓÇöthe personal stories of those experiencing displacementthe portraits of communities torn apart by disasterand the implications for all of us as we confront a changing future. Even as climate change dominates the headlinesmany of us still think about it in the future tenseΓÇöwe imagine that as global warming worsens over the coming decadesmillions of people will scatter around the worldfleeing famine and rising seas. What we often donΓÇÖt realize is that the consequences of climate change are already visibleright here in the United States. In communities across the countryclimate disasters are pushing thousands of people away from their homes. A human-centered narrative with national scopeThe Great Displacement is ΓÇ£a vivid tour of the new human geography just coming into viewΓÇ¥ (David Wallace-WellsNew York Times bestselling author of The Uninhabitable Earth). From half-drowned Louisiana to fire-scorched Californiafrom the dried-up cotton fields of Arizona to the soaked watersheds of inland North Carolinapeople are moving. In the last few decadesthe federal government has moved tens of thousands of families away from flood zonesand 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 riskpricing people out of risky areas. Over the next fifty yearsmillions of Americans will be caught up in this churn of displacementforced inland and northward in what will be the largest migration in our countryΓÇÖs history. Jake Bittle is ΓÇ£an empathetic writerΓÇ¥ (NPR) who compassionately tells the stories of those who are already experiencing life on the movewhile detailing just how radically climate change will transform our livesΓÇöerasing historic towns and villagespushing people toward new areasand reshaping the geography of the United States.