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Climate change

Migration as adaptation

Nature volume 478, pages 447–449 (2011)Cite this article

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Mobility can bring opportunities for coping with environmental change, say Richard Black, Stephen R. G. Bennett, Sandy M. Thomas and John R. Beddington.

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References

  1. Foresight: Migration and Global Environmental Change Final Project Report (Government Office for Science, 2011); available at http://go.nature.com/somswg

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Richard Black is head of the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9SJ, UK.,

    Richard Black

  2. Stephen R. G. Bennett is at the Foresight Programme, Government Office for Science, London SW1H 0ET, UK,

    Stephen R. G. Bennett

  3. Sandy M. Thomas is head of Foresight, Government Office for Science.,

    Sandy M. Thomas

  4. John R. Beddington is chief scientific adviser to the UK government, and head of the Government Office for Science.,

    John R. Beddington

Authors
  1. Richard Black
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  2. Stephen R. G. Bennett
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  3. Sandy M. Thomas
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  4. John R. Beddington
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Richard Black, Stephen R. G. Bennett, Sandy M. Thomas or John R. Beddington.

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Black, R., Bennett, S., Thomas, S. et al. Migration as adaptation. Nature 478, 447–449 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/478477a

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  1. Michael Lardelli

    With the Earth's population expanding by over 75 million per year and food production failing to keep up we desperately need to begin migrating to other planets. Begin the terraforming of Mars now!

    Seriously though, migration presents a problem for nations or areas where people attempt to live sustainably by limiting population size. If areas/nations with irresponsible population growth can just "solve" their problem through emigration of their excess population into areas that have not yet been ruined then everyone suffers the same, ultimate fate and attempts to live sustainably are hopeless.

  2. Elzi Volk

    I have often asked if restoring nomadic or semi-nomadic elements to our lifestyle would enhance our resilience to climate change. If one considers that the most adaptive response of wildlife to habitat change is migration, and then consider historical nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples (such as many indigenous cultures), I still think that adopting and adhering to a sedentary lifestyle decreases our resilience to climate change (and other environmental changes, even catastrophes such as the US floods). Yet we go back to flooded areas to rebuild time and again; we consume more energy to maintain our previous status quo lifestyles of comfort. (I also suspect that adopting a nomadic/semi-nomadic lifestyle would be self-limiting on population growth, which would also be a good thing).

    Very interesting article; good to see my thoughts weren't just rants of a counterculture scientist. ;)

  3. Chella Rajan

    This is a remarkable advancement in the field of environment and migration given the complexity of the domain and the need to navigate carefully among a variety of intersecting issues relating to the causes of migration and appropriate policy responses.

    Nevertheless, we find it odd that the issue of rights to migrants receives scant attention, if at all, both in the Comment and the main report (Foresight: Migration and Global Environmental Change Final Project Report, Government Office for Science; 2011, available at http://go.nature.com/rcb1on), on which it is based. If global environmental change results in stateless peoples, then they need to be given special rights to migrate to safe countries where they can enjoy state protection. Taking such action would not just be an act of charity, but derives from our negative duties, or duty not to cause harm, since their predicament in many instances is at least as much a consequence of humanity?s actions as a whole (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions) as other proximate causes.

    In particular, in the case of small islands and other countries that are in danger of becoming unviable as states as a result of global environmental change, we have a special responsibility to those who are faced with an unendurable burden resulting from a breakdown or forfeiture of prevailing physical, social and economic support systems. As we have argued previously (Byravan, S. and Rajan, S.C. Ethics &International Affairs. 24, 239-260 2010) the international community needs to provide explicit rights to these individuals allowing them the opportunity to resettle where they choose. Whether and how they exercise these rights is, of course, up to them, but their legal and political status itself needs to be formulated within the larger framework of a new international agreement. Such an agreement could also be designed to secure the rights of those displaced within a country.

    S. Byravan (sujatha.byravan@ifmr.ac.in)
    S.C. Rajan (scrajan@iitm.ac.in)

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