The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle

The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration Reviews

• 
  Jake Bittle

  I wrote this book
• 
  Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤

  This morning I handed a cashier a $20 bill. She placed it in the register, licked her index finger, and counted out my change.
  
  Germaphobe that I am, I almost said to keep it. Then I figured, she's the one who got the short end of the straw.
  
  Who knows where that 20 has been? It's entirely possible it spent some time hanging out in a stripper's ass before ending up in my wallet.
  
  What, you might ask, does this have to do with a book about climate change?
  
  Well, I wanted to show an example of forced migration. The bacteria living in Tawny's ass crack didn't ask to move, as far as I know. They were probably perfectly content in their nice warm abode.
  
  But then she went to work that night, spent some time warming up a pole, after which she warmed up the lap of a businessman whose pockets were bursting with twenties.
  
  He slid aside a silky red string, and tucked one of those 20s right up in Bacteria Bill's home. Bacteria Bill, his wife Betty, and their children Bob and Bonita slid right onto that paper.
  
  Later, Tawny put it in her wallet, got dressed, and headed home. There she pulled out some 20s to pay the babysitter, and Bill and Betty left not just their country but also their continent behind.
  
  The babysitter, a student at the local university, needed to pull an all-nighter to cram for a test. Not caring that her nose might eventually fall off, she decided to snort a little coke. I don't have to tell you which bill she pulled out, rolled up, and stuck in her nose, sucking Bonita right up inside.
  
  She also added some fauna of her own, not realizing that ass bacteria and nose bacteria are completely different species and probably don't even speak the same language. Nate and Ned the Newlyweds found themselves marooned on an island with neighbors they couldn't understand, much less like. Plus, they smelled funny.
  
  Over the weekend, the babysitter stopped at the local farmer's market. She paid for some pumpkins with the bill that now housed Bill and Betty and Bob but not Bonita, and Nate and Ned the Newlyweds.
  
  A young Amish girl took this bill which she later handed to me when I paid for some corn on the cob and apple butter. (I ❤️ autumn.).
  
  This morning I went to the pharmacy, handed over that twenty, and all that bacteria had to move again, now into the gut of a sweet and friendly, grey-haired, finger-licking lady.
  
  Bill and Betty and Bob will in the very near future find themselves deposited in a cosy new home similar to the one they were recently forced out of. Nate and Ned probably won't fare so well, as many climate migrants won't.
  
  And that's where the fun ends and reality sinks in and you can thank me for giving you something fun to think about instead of writing a depressing review about how people are already being forced from their homes due to the effects of climate change.
  
  It's not fun to read, but it's important. I had expected something different than what this book is - a history of several places no longer fit or soon to be unfit for humans to live in, and the personal stories of many people this aspect of climate change has already affected, people who have lost their homes to extreme weather and were forced to either rebuild or move.
  
  The author focuses on how migration will occur within the United States, though of course people throughout the entire world will be forced from their homes as the oceans rise, rain refuses to fall in some areas, and more extreme weather events make parts of the world uninhabitable.
  
  Regular readers of my reviews might recall that human interest stories in science-themed books are not my thing. I read novels for that. I was hoping for a book about climate migration specifics, facts, and numbers and was often bored with this book.
  
  I still give it 4 stars because it's written very well, and because I think the majority of readers will appreciate the individual stories. It makes climate change more real, to be able to put a face to people it has affected and is affecting.
  
  I think it's a great way to get readers interested in the climate crisis and if human interest stories appeal to you, I recommend this book.
  
  I do not, however, recommend licking your fingers after touching money. Just don't.
• 
  Nathan Shuherk

  Favorite book of the year so far
• 
  Thomas

  An important book about climate displacement and how climate change will force people to move away from inhospitable living conditions. I liked that Jake Bittle included the direct stories and quotes from people’s whose lives have already been affected by climate displacement. Climate change already affects people’s lives, especially those with fewer resources and who face greater societal marginalization. I appreciate that Bittle included some potential solutions to address climate change and climate displacement so that the book contains some level of hope.
  
  Unfortunately I found the writing a bit boring/dull to read at times, however climate displacement is such an important issue so I’d still potentially recommend The Great Displacement to folks.
• 
  Jenna Leone

  A good overview of the various types of climate-related issues that will lead to domestic migration in the US over the next several decades. Lots of historical examples depicting how severe weather events driven by climate change affect populations of varying size in all regions of the US. Well-researched and written in a very accessible way. An excellent "starter book" if you're new to the topic of climate-driven migration.
• 
  JoAnn

  It's impossible to deny climate change these days and The Great Displacement explains how climate migration is already underway. I found this to be an absolutely riveting read, especially in light of our experience with Hurricane Ian in Sanibel, FL last September.
  
  Bittle structures the book to cover both weather/climate disasters and long-term growing problems. Each gets a separate chapter where the author digs into possible causes, government response, construction/ insurance/housing ramifications, and stories of individual families and homeowners in each danger zone.
  
  The Great Displacement begins with Hurricane Irma in Big Pine Key, FL in 2017, then moves back to 1999 and the first attempt at government buyouts. This occurred in Kinston, NC following flooding along the Neuse River after Hurricane Floyd. Bittle explore the situation following California wildfires, coastal erosion in the Louisiana bayous, flood control in Houston, water scarcity in Arizona, and rising sea levels in Norfolk, VA. This is a comprehensive look at the many manifestations of climate change and various attempts to deal with them. I learned even more about the national flood insurance program, the insurance industry in general, FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, changing flood zones, and the effects on the housing market.
  
  This is the most comprehensive look at the many climate change scenarios facing the United States that I have seen. I could not put this book down and even added the audio version so I could continue to listen when I could no longer sit and read. This will be one of my favorite nonfiction reads of 2023.
• 
  laurel [the suspected bibliophile]

  To what do we owe each other?
  
  Who is forced to leave due to climate change, and whose houses are shored up against the oncoming tides?
  
  This is both a hopeful and depressing look at the future of the United States—and to a lesser extent, the world, seeing as we are all living on this rapidly heating little blue ball in the universe.
  
  Bittle examines a variety of climate disasters, from rapid events like hurricanes and floods and fires to slow-moving disasters like drought, examining the wide-ranging effects, and how humans (and companies, most notably insurance companies and governments) have chosen to adapt or leave.
  
  There's a coming migration within the United States, of climate refugees forced to move, and, like everything in this country, it is going to affect underserved and marginalized populations—particularly Black and Latine—first.
  
  The bad news is that we've past the point of preventing climate change. The good news is that we have the tools to minimize the effects and hopefully cap the global temperature increase to 1.5 C.
  
  The world we live in is going to seem like a fairy tale to our descendants.
• 
  Traci Thomas

  The idea here is interesting but felt this could’ve been much more succinct. The editing by location vs type of disaster led to lots of repetition and story and not much analysis or information. I found myself zoning out a lot.
• 
  Kristi Murray

  INCREDIBLE BOOK it did change my life you must read this book…. it is unprecedented in how good it is
• 
  Maukan

  In 2021 1 in 3 Americans experienced an extreme weather event. It feels like things are changing from climate to geography to politics at an alarming rate. In the last 7 or 8 years the planet has increasingly been getting warmer. I am not sure if it's an availability bias on my part where it seems like one 'Once in a lifetime' weather event happening in such a continuous frequency that they all become blurred. I don't know if the news doing its disaster porn coverage that is also playing a part. The interconnectedness we experience now with smart phones increasing the images of houses flooded, trees being ripped out of the ground, extreme heat literally melting physical infrastructure. All these headlines are stuck in my head like a compilation of one natural disaster after another. I decided to pick up this book because I feel like ever since covid hit, remote work starting, supply chains being crushed... There is a new economic era that changes the tide culturally and then finally politically. This book doesn't explain everything that I am feeling or thinking about but it did provide some clues to how the demographics can change as the weather becomes more and more extreme. Lets jump in.
  
  The book features a mix of story telling with data and personal stories from people who have lost everything from a climate disaster. Whether its a flood in Houston, a fire in California or a drought in Arizona that impacts the residents ability to farm and have access to water. You see a similar theme, people who could barely afford a home in the first place, buy a home, it gets destroyed by a natural disaster and they're left paying for the mortgage because often times the insurance doesn't cover the full value of the home. These events leave the price of the home in taters, often times owners are unable to sell. This has a rippling effect on the economic impact on the area. As housing prices reduce due to lack of desire to move there because of these events, schools close, communities lose critical infrastructure and before you know it becomes destitute. While more wealthy individuals or families can rebound quicker they can afford to take the loss in stride. When a whole community loses their home, this sets the prices of available homes in the area to astronomical heights. Effectively placing the poorest out of living in the community they grew up in. Not to mention governments will provide little assistance to the poorest communities. They often times do a cost benefit analysis on the homes in the area and if the cost to maintain them from the dangers of natural disasters is higher than the value of the homes themselves they end up letting it fall by the wayside as opposed to wealthier communities who can be a tax boon. They will make those investments for these areas depending on the degree of danger the homes are in. These areas are often set apart by racial lines as more affluent people tend to be able to get better protection for obvious reasons, they have more economic power. For people who were struggling with making payments on their place of living, these types of disasters are a death wish. Some never recover from the economic loss and are hurled into a downward spiral of economic stagnation, depression and tragically suicide.
  
  For the last 10 years we have been having talks about the crisis of climate, we're getting closer to more and more Americans experiencing these events that its not bipartisan anymore in terms of its denial. Politician's cannot simply brush off this issue as its at the forefront of many peoples thoughts as they have endured personal lose through property value, human life and leaving their entire place of birth as they know it. In the coming years and decades. We will see more and more Americans move to places that traditionally they would not if it means being safer from extreme weather events. This will have cultural and political effects as well that will change the fabric of politics. We're already seeing it today, the book talks about these cultural shifts and what it means to communities.
  
  A very interesting read, 4 stars is right for this book. I could see someone giving it 3 stars and another person giving it 5. For me its 4.
  
  Thanks for reading, take care.
• 
  Erinp

  Oh man as someone who left the west due to fires and watches this on the news, it was SO interesting to learn about how US policy and insurance etc etc are playing with climate migration. A good blend of real life anecdotes and facts made it really informative. Worth the listen for sure.
• 
  Cait

  this might not work for readers looking for a "harder science" take on climate change, but its human-interest approach—recounting the stories of individuals and communities, all within the united states, who have already been rendered climate migrants or climate refugees to varying degrees—very much worked for me. a good deal of discourse surrounding climate change attempts, with urgent pleas, to call attention to the fact that its effects will disproportionately be felt in the global south, and I think that reminding people of the monstrous injustice of that fact is critically important, but I also think it may make those of us not living in the global south feel a false sense of security. I, therefore, found this book (whose title references the great migration) a really interesting angle from which to approach the issue, especially given its continual centering of the fact that, even within the united states, race and class will bear overwhelming weight in who will suffer the most—who has already suffered and is already suffering the most—from the worsening climate crisis.
  
  super engaging, super readable (listenable), absolutely terrifying. we are staring down the barrel of a gun.
• 
  Chandler Sanchez

  4.25, great book, I guess I’ll just never own a house ☺️
• 
  Roy Madrid

  Heartbreaking stories on a topic that’s all too relevant. Hoping more people have a chance to give this a read through and make more informed decisions on their living arrangements.
• 
  Andrea

  This is dispiriting but necessary. It is clear climate change will affect all of us and this book shows how. Yes, marginalized communities often suffer earlier and more, but even better off/richer communities have their own issues, usually related to insurance payouts not covering the full cost of their homes. Climate change is equal opportunity disaster.
  
  In fact I learned more about insurance in this book than I ever thought I'd need to know but I live in CA and it is scary and not improbable (I now know) that my homeowners insurance could be canceled. I also learned that FEMA is an acute response, and where it might make sense to take preventative actions, the systems aren't set up to do that. I can see how communities are not able to fully recover, often through punitive bureaucracy.
  
  The variety of personal stories kept this book moving and made it real and not theoretical.
• 
  Kat

  This book surprised me. I expected a dry review of data, and that's not what this is. This is a sweeping narrative of climate migration in the US, including personal stories of affected people. The author did a great job of showing how systemic inequities impact disaster response, and (my personal favorite part) makes you think about what we owe to one another. He suggests some excellent, radical, large-scale solutions to the coming humanitarian crises.
  
  I recommend this very, very highly.
• 
  Geoffrey

  Incredibly informative and eye-opening about the numerous ways in which climate change is displacing people from their homes, and the challenges that must be managed now and also in the near-future. However, definitely a bit of an anxiety-provoking as well, at least for me. Incredibly worth reading, but definitely have some lighter lined up for you next book when you're finished.
• 
  Emma Refvem

  A great book about a stressful topic. The case studies made something so abstract feel personal… like climate change is already happening to people just like us (which it is!!!). If I were still teaching APES I would figure out a way to use these case studies in class.
• 
  Yarrow Linden

  Very informative read on housing and other risks related to climate change. 0/10 recommend if you already suffer from climate anxiety
• 
  Marian

  Very good. A realistic and non-fearmongering read about the current and future impacts of climate change on human migration. This quote from the book sums it up: "For many Americans, climate change will look like letting go of their old ideas of home, ideas that in many cases are synonymous with the American Dream."
• 
  Brynne Wisner

  
  3.5 ⭐️ please take my rating with a grain of salt because I have come to the realization that while I love nonfiction audiobooks I just can’t physically read nonfiction. It literally feels like a chore (especially during my fun goofy Rick Riordan summer). This book took me reading it off and on from February to July and considering the book is less than 300 pages it’s just not a good look (mostly for me, somewhat for the book). This book was very informative and I did learn quite a bit but it just wasn’t engrossing until the last two sections.
  
  Bittle definitely did his research for this book and the amount of first hand experiences he got was quite impressive. However, I found that since he used examples of so many people’s climate displacement stories it started to feel repetitive even when the stories were very different because the main points were the same. I think for me this book really shines in the last two sections where Bittle discusses more of the less discussed or considered climate impacts that will cause displacement (reoccurring floods and heat) and the trends of how people disperse after climate disasters and what that will mean for the populations of more temperate/climate protected states and cities. Both sections raised points that I had not experienced, considered, or talked much about in my college classes.
  
  So, All In all read at your own risk as it has its good parts but it felt like a literal chore to get through.
  
  My final takeaway is this: Michigan is looking pretty good right about now 👀
• 
  Tiffany

  I really enjoyed this (a bit short I would have loved to read more) description of how climate change is affecting people in very real ways and some of the complications from a legal and urban development perspective that we rarely hear about
  Very illuminating
• 
  Maria

  Things are looking bleak folks
• 
  Grant

  Top-to-bottom, a very well done nonfiction book. Although I think some of us have the tendency to think of climate migration and climate refugees in the larger macro sense, with the need to try to offer some semblance of justice to the people of the global south, Bittle's focus on the US is worthwhile and doesn't feel ethno- or geo-centric. By showing just how drastic the effects can be in the largely temperate, developed areas close to home for a Western reader, it hits with an immediacy, and the reader can extrapolate (with some prompts from Bittle) the dangers on a global scale.
  
  Bittle does a great job selecting examples that show just how intractable and thorny these issues are, and how it's often a regular person that gets left holding the bag. Perhaps in part because I live in the Northeast, I think I have a tendency to look at some situations in places like California or Florida in particular and judge some of the homeowners for being 'greedy' and electing to live in reckless waterfront developments in hurricane country or McMansions and farms in parched fire-prone areas, etc. While I still think that can sometimes be true, it's also very reductive and blames the victim. Bittle shows how a mess of municipal and state interests collide with corporate greed to create many of these issues. He also does an excellent job showing that the bag holders in these situations are rarely the rich: it's those of lesser or modest means (and especially people of colour), and the community as a whole who suffers. In particular, I was struck by his stories of how difficult this whole thing can be from an Indigenous reconciliation perspective (and I'm sure how that then unfairly pits residential and agricultural interests against them) and how basically one run-in with a climate change issue can almost ruin your entire financial future, such as the Coast Guard couple who bought a townhome in which catastrophic, almost uninsurable flood risk was undisclosed, nearly leaving a young family with an unsaleable home.
  
  Strong narration from Matt Godfrey in the audiobook version.
• 
  Afsoon

  dense but wonderful
• 
  Nichole

  Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Jake Bittle for providing me with an ARC of this book.
  
  This book is well written and goes into amazing detail about how climate change is affecting the United States currently and how it could in other areas of the US in the near future as well. It has real examples from people around the USA and their stories of how climate change has impacted them and where they used to live. I loved the stories from people the most because in climate change books, it is mostly about the facts and numbers and not about what people are saying and/or experiencing. These stories that these people are sharing hardly ever make it in the media so the general public learns about it. There were many stories that surprised me since I had no idea these areas were currently being affected by climate change in the US. The last chapter of the book provides us with thought provoking questions of what the future holds, how we handle climate migration refugees, and more.
  
  This book is extremely readable and is not hard to read if you don't know anything at all about climate change. It doesn't have technical words or phrases one might not know of when it comes to climate change. This book would be a great academia book in a college class about climate change.
  
  I extremely recommend this book if you want to learn more about how climate change is affecting many peoples' lives in America or if you yourself are currently living in an area that is at danger of being affected by climate change.
  
  
• 
  Paige

  Really excellent analysis of the displacement already being caused by climate change and the danger posed to the still growing coastal real estate market with a few interesting suggestions about what could be done. The personal stories make this a much more interesting read - not dry at all. Strongly recommend.
• 
  Jessica

  Focused primarily on the southern half of the U.S. Engaging writing, thoughtful explorations of factors leading to climate-driven flooding (North Carolina, Virginia, Texas), hurricanes (North Carolina, Louisiana), drought (Arizona) and wildfires (California) and the after-effects of what have become patterns of destruction. Aside from everything else, it's a good reminder that loss is part of life -- and also that while any of my stuff could be destroyed at any moment by an unexpected disaster, my acquisition of that stuff is part of a pattern of consumption and extraction that's increasing the risk of disaster.
• 
  Elena Akers

  The disappointing revelation that in the end I’ll probably have to move back to Ohio (but actually this was a really stellar, if frightening, look at the ways climate change will affect us in the present and very near future)
• 
  Erin Wyman

  Climate change is not coming.
  
  It’s here