Allison Burbach (9/29): Climate Migration

For my HONR 490 class this semester, I was assigned a fascinating article about the threat of climate migration in the coming decades. 

Here is the link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html 


Coastal communities facing rising sea levels and arid communities facing unlivable droughts are on the verge of a massive uprooting. Small island nations have already had to take dire action and move from indigenous lands. I immediately made the connection to habitat and habitus when analyzing the issue of climate migration. Countries taking in climate refugees present major problems because, in a new habitat, refugees cannot maintain their habitus. People that have historically lived on island nations, living off the land and sea cannot just be uprooted and displaced to a landlocked country. Traditions, customs, and beliefs are all tied to the environment. I fear that this conversation is not given the important consideration it deserves in conversations around climate migrants. How can we preserve some sense of normalcy for displaced populations in relation to their habitat and habitus?

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