An examination of environmental migration - a major, though little discussed, imminent consequence of climate change.

Vince argues that high levels of migration will be required in the coming decades for Earth’s population to cope with the increasingly extreme impacts of climate change, thus we must plan accordingly in terms of city design, land use, border rules, etc. I think her assessment is correct - mass migration driven by changing environmental conditions is inevitable, and stricter border controls or other preventative measures will merely push people to migrate illegally/dangerously rather stop them. But the book also felt rather utopian.

There was a level of complexity missing, which I think is where the idealistic feel comes from - the suggested future “liveable” zones are really only based on predicted climate, with no real discussion around other factors that might make somewhere liveable or not. Some factors are beyond the scope of the book, but acknowledgement that they exist would go a long way. For example, Vince suggests that it in a 4°C hotter world, NZ will be densely populated with high-rise cities, but I wonder at the feasibility of this in an earthquake zone. That future habitable zones include indigenous lands is mentioned, but the traumatic colonial history around indigenous lands is not.

It’s unclear how any of the planning and adaptations suggested in the book would realistically happen politically - unfortunately, much of it is hard to sell to voters and I’m too cynical to believe that things will happen because they should. I was left thinking “we’re fucked” rather than hopeful that there are achievable solutions on the horizon.

I’m being nitpicky with my criticism, so to be clear, this IS an interesting read - the science and impact predictions are well summarised and accessible. It’s worth reading if you’re interested in what the future might look like for humanity in the coming decades, just don’t expect too many concrete solutions - despite being a little idealistic and over-simplified at times, it’s a good starting point.