On the Move

The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America

By: Abrahm Lustgarten

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

"On the Move explains how we got here and where we're headed. It's crucial guide to the world we are creating."―Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky and The Sixth Extinction

A vivid, journalistic account of how climate change will make American life as we know it unfeasible.

Humanity is on the precipice of a great climate migration, and Americans will not be spared. Tens of millions of people are likely to be driven from the places they call home. Poorer communities will be left behind, while growth will surge in the cities and regions most attractive to climate refugees. America will be changed utterly.

Abrahm Lustgarten’s On the Move is the definitive account of what this massive population shift might look like. As he shows, the United States will be rendered unrecognizable by four unstoppable forces: wildfires in the West; frequent flooding in coastal regions; extreme heat and humidity in the South; and droughts that will make farming all but impossible across much of the nation.

Reporting from the front lines of climate migration, Lustgarten explains how a pattern of shortsighted policies encouraged millions to settle in vulnerable parts of the country, and introduces us to homeowners in California, insurance customers in Florida, and ranchers in Colorado who are being forced to make the agonizing choice of when, not whether, to leave. Employing the most current climate data and predictive models, he shows how America’s population will be squeezed northward into a shrinking triangle of land stretching from Tennessee to Maine to the Great Lakes. The places many of us now call home are at risk, and On the Move reveals how we’ll deal with the consequences.

©2024 Abrahm Lustgarten. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“An urgent examination of how the U.S. will be affected by migrations driven by global warming . . . a nuanced account of how myriad factors intertwine to fuel migration . . . [with] poignant portraits . . . Readers will be unnerved.”―Publishers Weekly

"Abrahm Lustgarten has written the best account of one of the least examined but most immediate consequences of climate change. On the Move is an unflinching guidebook to our near future, aggressively reported, rigorously quantified, as terrifying as it is revelatory. Duluth, here we come."―Nathaniel Rich, author of Second Nature and Losing Earth

“Around one third of global migration is already driven by climate change. How much more will it be in the future? A lot more, as Abrahm Lustgarten carefully forecasts in this important book. Can we both relocate and future-proof ourselves at the same time? That is the great challenge humanity faces in an over-heating world.”―Parag Khanna, author of Move: Where People are Going for a Better Future

Narrow View of The Future

The author has an encyclopedic knowledge of the potential affect of climate change on human migration. He projects this into the future for nearly a hundred years. What he fails to do is to take into account are the expected affects of science and technology in the same period that might modify his projections drasticly. Examples are nontraditional agriculture, the potential breakthroughs in energy production such as clean fusion, the impact of advanced AI and birthrate changes. This static view of the future all but invalidates his entire book.

Solid addition to Climate Change Library

I purchased this book based on Mr. Lustgarten's interview on NPR. This is the sixth book I have read on Climate Change, so I will focus on what he adds to the ongoing conversation. I live in an area increasingly affected by heat and drought, and I did not explicitly connect this to my homeowner's insurance until I listened to this book. First, Mr. Lustgarten gives an excellent and clear explanation of the dangers posed by Climate Change and government subsidized home insurance programs which encourage people to continue to live in areas that are or will become untenable. Second, the book explores a very important question: Should YOU relocate because of climate change? This is a difficult question to confront and this book offers a provocative exploration of migration to and within the United States. Third, the section on Guatemala is very compelling in outlining and personalizing some of the underlying push forces that impact migration and are already being felt on US borders.

Many Climate Change books can be depressingly bleak, but this book has made me consider my own migration seriously!