The earliest places that are going to face this sort of existential vulnerability are places that are relatively sparsely populated. So the mountain wilderness of California or the most rural parts of the US Gulf Coast and the East Coast, these are places where there's isn't infrastructure to protect against climate disasters. But you're talking about a very different situation for a big city like Miami, for instance, where there's a lot of money to invest in a lot of infrastructure. There's just not the will to keep these places around.
For decades, Americans have been moving South and West. That migration pattern was visible in political terms when seven congressional districts moved between states after the 2020 census, and it continues to be visible in the booming construction and job markets in cities across the Sun Belt.
In this installment of the podcast, Galen speaks with author Jake Bittle, who argues that it’s only a matter of time before those trends reverse, or at least shift. However, as he writes in his new book, "The Great Displacement," this time it won’t be cheap housing, low taxes and plentiful jobs that attract people to new places. It will be a harshening climate that pushes them away.
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