Climate and Human Migration
Past Experiences, Future Challenges

The first comprehensive review of the interaction between climate change and migration; for advanced students, researchers and policy makers.

Robert A. McLeman (Author)

9781107022652, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 December 2013

314 pages, 47 b/w illus. 7 maps 3 tables
25.7 x 17.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.8 kg

'We've needed this book for some time now. While the 'flood of climate refugees' idea (scare?) can have a certain appeal, and its 'connect the dots' logic a certain policy utility, Robert McLeman's exceptionally well researched and readable book reveals we are way off the mark in thinking that the migration repercussions of climate change will be so simplistic. Climate and Human Migration will be very valuable for research and teaching about the human dimensions of climate change. But perhaps those who need to read it most are the policy-makers in various countries who are pondering (and in some cases already formulating) perilous and dangerous policies based on the simple, unelaborated view of how migration and climate change interact.' Jon Unruh, McGill University

Studies warn that global warming and sea level rise will create hundreds of millions of environmental refugees. While climate change will undoubtedly affect future migration patterns and behavior, the potential outcomes are more complex than the environmental refugee scenario suggests. This book provides a comprehensive review of how physical and human processes interact to shape migration, using simple diagrams and models to guide the researcher, policy maker and advanced student through the climate-migration process. The book applies standard concepts and theories used in climate and migration scholarship to explain how events such as Hurricane Katrina, the Dust Bowl, African droughts, and floods in Bangladesh and China have triggered migrations that haven't always fit the environmental refugee storyline. Lessons from past migrations are used to predict how future migration patterns will unfold in the face of sea level rise, food insecurity, political instability, and to review options for policy makers.

1. An introduction to the study of climate and migration
2. Why people migrate
3. Migration in the context of vulnerability and adaptation to climatic variability and change
4. Extreme weather events and migration
5. River valley flooding and migration
6. Drought and its influence on migration
7. Mean sea level rise and its implications for migration and migration policy
8. Emergent issues in climate and migration research.

Subject Areas: The environment [RN], Earth sciences, geography, environment, planning [R]