In a nutshell: The Great Displacement by Jake Bittle (3-min read)

In The Great Displacement, journalist Jake Bittle explores the various ways that climate change is transforming the United States.

Every year, new disasters are disfiguring parts of the country, forcing people to move, and destroying communities while creating new ones.

The book examines various communities transformed by extreme weather. The first section of the book looks at the Florida Keys, which Bittle describes as "the first flock of canaries in the coal mine of climate change."

Patrick Garvey, for example, bought a neglected grove on Big Pine Key and turned it into a community resource that grew rare fruits. Then Hurricane Irma destroyed it.

Bittle notes that many other islands in the Keys are "doomed" to disappear by the end of the century.

The author dives into the factors that drive people's decisions to stay or leave when their communities are affected by climate change.

In California's wine country, for example, the Tubbs Fire of 2017 devastated the city of Santa Rosa.

These disasters pose a genuine dilemma for residents. Combined with a crisis in affordable housing, many Californians have been forced to move to places like Idaho.

Others have relocated due to rising insurance premiums and weather risks.

At least 20 million people in the US will be forced to move due to climate change, Bittle predicts – a number twice as high as during the Great Migration.

The Great Displacement is both empathetic and informative, covering a wide range of issues from economic inequality to political complexities that contribute to the climate crisis, upending countless lives in the process.

While the book ends on a hopeful note, Bittle believes it’s important to acknowledge the true extent of the damage already done, stating that "when a community disappears, so does a map that orients us in the world."

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