Moving on
“Over the next 50 years, millions of Americans will be caught up in this churn of displacement, forced inland and northward in what will be the largest migration in our country’s history,” says author Jake Bittle, whose book The Great Displacement, tell stories of people forced to leave their homes due to extreme weather events.
Around 162 million Americans are expected to experience a decline in the quality of their environment and by 2070, with four million could be living outside “the ideal niche for human life,” according to a collaborative effort between ProPublica and The New York Times
For now, people are moving to Texas from other US states to escape other weather-related problems such as frequent tornadoes to drought. One study found Houston to be a “receiving community” for climate migrants from New Orleans looking to put down new roots following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Another study predicts that rising sea levels will force 13 million Americans to move away from the coasts, with Houston and Dallas potentially getting thousands of new residents. But predicting the movement of people is notoriously difficult, and people may seek refuge from extreme weather within and out of the US Gulf Coast region.
Whether Texas one day becomes so uncomfortably hot for humans that they decide to leave remains to be seen. Nielsen-Gammon says the highest temperature ever recorded in Texas was 120F (49C), which is just one degree higher than the peak recorded in this heatwave.
“Gradually, as the global climate warms, there is the possibility temperatures keep increasing (in Texas) in tandem,” warns Nielsen-Gammon.
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