The Washington Post has an interesting article about some people who have relocated (from Washington D.C. to New Zealand, Israel to Indiana, and New Orleans to Shreveport, Louisiana) due to environmental concerns. These anecdotes are being used to paint a bigger picture of fear of environmental change due to global warming. The article also refers to the suggestion by the president of Kiribati that the international community think of ways to relocate entire countries if the oceans rise. What do you think about "ecomigration," as the article puts it, and when (under what circumstances) and/or where would you go?
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“Ecomigration” I doubt that it will largely impact cities and economies (except for a few places outside USA).
The author himself said, “…prediction is notoriously difficult, and humans have long proved adept at devising technological solutions for major problems.”
‘Economigration’ is the overriding moving force – people tend to move to where the jobs are, regardless of climate (change).
I ‘outsourced myself’ and decided to move to China where the economy isn’t as bad, and the opportunities in the fields of environment and pollution are great.
We will move to Morocco where the Big Brother attitude is less and more to learn and enjoy and our work can be done anywhere.
Matt
(1)I loved this article, and agree with its intent. I congratulate the people involved migrating in the way they did; they showed great courage. I hope their descendants appreciate that courage when they find out about it, in the same way that I appreciate my ancestors’ courage doing the same thing in the 18th and 19th centuries.
For migration of any kind to work, people need a reason to leave, a reason to arrive, and a willing host.
If millions of people wish to leave one place to arrive at another, the recipient needs to be willing and able to accept them.
Such people may find prospective hosts difficult to find if NZ’s ablility to absorb 100,000 people from Kiribati is any example.
I appreciate that climate change will not wait for humans to fix our current economic debacle, but our economic problem might make adaption to climate change all the more difficult, however necessary it might be.
(2)I would wish to Australia if it ceased to provide me with a warm, loving, free environment.
(3) My most desired host would be NZ, as it has been for the last 41 years–if only it were not so physically cold.
When one leaves a location it is emigration. When one goes to another location it is immigration. Finally when one returns to the original location it is migration.