Preparing for Climate Migration

As climate disasters make some parts of the world increasingly unlivable, billions of people — an estimated 3.5 billion by 2070 — will have to relocate to safer ground.

As Ayana Elizabeth Johnson explains in a piece for Wired, “To date, most climate migration has occurred within nations, but as the regions affected by extreme weather expand, that will need to change.”

We will have to be vigilant about keeping xenophobia at bay, acknowledging the cruel injustice at play as the lowest greenhouse gas emitting nations, like the Pacific islands, are the first to be inundated.

Johnson notes that governments at all levels are starting to take note, creating policies such as relocation buyouts and limiting new developments in risky areas. To prepare for relocating its residents once sea levels make the island unlivable, the government of the South Pacific nation of Kiribati purchased land in Fiji.

“Already, 11 percent of Americans have considered moving to avoid the impacts of global warming, and roughly 75 percent are hesitant to buy homes in areas with high climate risks like wildfires (more than 30 million homes in the lower 48 US states are at risk of being hit with wildfires).” Meanwhile, insurance companies are hiking rates or pulling out of certain areas altogether.

As Johnson points out, governments will need proactive policies to manage the climate migration that will become a fact of life. “It’s not that people want to move, to leave the communities and ecosystems they love and call home; it's that they must.”