The Great Displacement

March 1, 2022

With climate change prompting displacement worldwide, journalist Bittle pulls in his focus, warning us that millions in the United States will be forced to migrate internally in the next 50 years. They will be burned out of California, flooded out of Louisiana and North Carolina, compelled to flee the desiccated cotton fields of Arizona, and more. Indeed, the federal government has already sponsored the relocation of tens of thousands of families from flood zones, with tens of thousands more relocating on their own owing to natural disaster. The migration has begun; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

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Starred review from December 12, 2022
Journalist Bittle debuts with a captivating exploration of how climate change will “reshape the demographic geography of the United States.” Drawing on interviews, Bittle vividly documents the experiences of people impacted by hurricanes, wildfires, soil erosion, flooding, and other disasters. In Big Pine Key, Fla., Patrick Garvey recounts how his tropical fruit grove and nursery were decimated by Hurricane Irma, while residents of Kinston, N.C., which suffered two catastrophic floods in the span of four years in the 1990s, shed light on the “sense of mourning” that comes with abandoning neighborhoods in a process known as “managed retreat.” Elsewhere, Bittle spotlights the experiences of white Cajuns and Indigenous tribespeople in the Louisiana bayou to show “how much culture and history stands to be lost when movement becomes a necessity.” Throughout, Bittle analyzes how economic disparity, institutional racism, and other factors contribute to the uneven impact of climate disasters, from which some can easily rebound while others find themselves in “a churning vortex of displacement and instability.” The foregrounding of individual voices adds to the book’s power and sense of urgency, and Bittle is an expert explainer of policy matters. This is a captivating look at a pressing issue. Agent: Sarah Fuentes, Fletcher and Co.

Starred review from February 1, 2023
This multifaceted examination of the effects of climate change considers numerous U.S. communities that have been wiped out by changing weather patterns and foretells a future filled with additional displacements. Environmental journalist Bittle effectively uses a combination of science reporting and stories of individual human experience to explain the fates of entire towns deemed uninhabitable, either by government agencies or by the stark realities of insurmountable loss. He provides vivid descriptions and accessible technical explanations, but the most powerful parts of his narrative detail the lives of individuals. He includes the histories of neighborhoods, why people settled there and the communities they established, and follows through as these displaced people attempt to build new lives. Throughout, Bittle acknowledges the inevitability of climate change but also addresses the effects of confounding, counterproductive policies put in place by FEMA and other government initiatives, not to mention those wrought by insurance and mortgage agencies as well as big agriculture. He poses disturbing questions: where are all these uprooted people supposed to go, and what demands will climate migration place on existing infrastructures? Presenting powerful and moving evidence, the author ends with a plea for comprehensive environmental policy change and urgent action.

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Starred review from January 1, 2023
An urgent, perceptive analysis of how climate change is already changing where Americans live. Though most readers worry about climate change, many assume that it will arrive in full force later in the century and wreak greatest havoc elsewhere in the world. They will quickly learn their error as journalist Bittle delivers expert accounts of seven humanitarian disasters, all within the U.S. and currently in progress. Only a few feet above sea level, "the thousand-odd islands that make up the Florida Keys are the first flock of canaries in the coal mine of climate change." Illustrating with vivid stories of individuals who love the region despite its frequent hurricanes and floods, Bittle identifies Hurricane Irma (2017) as the tipping point. Its massive destruction of housing and infrastructure overwhelmed relief efforts, many of which are still in progress. Oceans are also eating away the Louisiana coastline, which affects not just New Orleans and other cities, but also many of the "self-sufficient communities" that used to live in the now-vanishing bayous. Bittle mentions New York City's encounter with Hurricane Sandy in passing, but he devotes an eye-opening chapter to Norfolk, Virginia, a coastal city whose streets flood at high tide. "The gradual blurring of the line between land and water, a process that was supposed to take centuries or even millennia, was happening fast enough that you could watch it with your naked eyes," writes the author. There is cold comfort in the obligatory how-to-fix-it chapter. Even though "more than six million people in the United States lost their homes to climate disasters between 2016 and 2020," people continue to move to climate-endangered regions. Most experts agree on a plan of action, but it requires decisive government action and spending money today to save it in future decades. Given the current political climate, this action may not be swift or expansive enough. A simultaneously fascinating and unnerving report brilliantly delivered.

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