The Great Displacement

Climate Change and the Next American Migration

By: Jake Bittle

Narrated by: Matt Godfrey

Shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence

The “closely observed, compassionate, and far-sighted” (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Under a White Sky) story of climate migration in the United States—the personal stories of those experiencing displacement, the portraits of communities torn apart by disaster, and the implications for all of us as we confront a changing future.

Even as climate change dominates the headlines, many of us still think about it in the future tense—we imagine that as global warming worsens over the coming decades, millions of people will scatter around the world, fleeing famine and rising seas. What we often don’t realize is that the consequences of climate change are already visible, right here in the United States. In communities across the country, climate disasters are pushing thousands of people away from their homes.

A human-centered narrative with national scope, The Great Displacement is “a vivid tour of the new human geography just coming into view” (David Wallace-Wells, New York Times bestselling author of The Uninhabitable Earth). From half-drowned Louisiana to fire-scorched California, from the dried-up cotton fields of Arizona to the soaked watersheds of inland North Carolina, people are moving. In the last few decades, the federal government has moved tens of thousands of families away from flood zones, and tens of thousands more have moved of their own accord in the aftermath of natural disasters. Insurance and mortgage markets are already shifting to reflect mounting climate risk, pricing people out of risky areas.

Over the next fifty years, millions of Americans will be caught up in this churn of displacement, forced inland and northward in what will be the largest migration in our country’s history. Jake Bittle is “an empathetic writer” (NPR) who compassionately tells the stories of those who are already experiencing life on the move, while detailing just how radically climate change will transform our lives—erasing historic towns and villages, pushing people toward new areas, and reshaping the geography of the United States.

Critic reviews

"Matt Godfrey is an exceptionally good narrator for this audiobook outlining the existing and looming changes that climate change will bring to the U.S. His rough-edged, somewhat reedy, voice is expressive enough to keep the listener’s attention. Along with subtle and effective variations, he makes emphasis clear. . . This is an excellent, necessary audiobook. Godfrey’s performance makes it a riveting one — appropriately alarming without being alarmist."

A very well worded warning about the uncertain future we all face.

The book manages to cover a hard subject in a factual yet empathetic way. I'd definitely recommend

Eye Opening & Thought Provoking

Author Jake Bittle crosses state boundaries and economic disparities to give us a comprehensive vision of our past, current, and future realities of living in a climate-changed United States. By weaving together the stories of families affected by climate in a multitude of ways, we have an opportunity to fully grasp what’s here, what’s coming - and how to prepare on individual, community, city, state, and national levels. Highly recommend.

Clear and thorough

Explained very clear with examples. It went through each chapter very systematically. I would recommend any who wants to learn about economics to read or listen

Where we're headed

This isn't a feelgood kind of read. That said, it presents the untold stories of those in the US who have been affected by climate change through both the acute events like flood and fire but also the more gradual events like desertification and rising sea levels. It shows the weaknesses in our emergency funding approaches and the difficulty and expense of resilience measures which can at most only buy time. Managed retreat and the migration that results is going to carry a huge impact.

On a personal note, while it made me feel like my investments were well positioned for the future, I would not be looking to invest in mortgage backed securities or state/municipal bonds for fear of what's presented in this book.

Spot On. Sad but True

Well written, compelling, and undeniably accurate. The average human doesn’t want to accept the realities of climate change. I’ve asked many ppl about their opinions during the period of time spent listening to this book; and the most popular idea presented by most is that some future technology will bail us out of this looming catastrophe. Someone will invent something that will save us. So sad, but understandable in our current state of the US.

The book does a good job at presenting factual evidence that’s relevant and hard to overlook. I feel so sad that my two young daughters will be forced to live in such crazy messed up world, one completely different from the seemingly perfect climate that I was so blessed to get to experience.