Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval

Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval

  • Downloads:8207
  • Type:Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date:2022-08-23 07:52:36
  • Update Date:2025-09-06
  • Status:finish
  • Author:Gaia Vince
  • ISBN:0241522315
  • Environment:PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Summary

'Gaia Vince's new book should be read not just by every politician, but by every person on the planet, because it lays out, much more clearly than any existing scientific assessment, the world we are creating through global heating' Observer

An urgent investigation of the most underreported, seismic consequence of climate change: how it will force us to change where - and how - we live


We are facing a species emergency。 With every degree of temperature rise, a billion people will be displaced from the zone in which humans have lived for thousands of years。 While we must do everything we can to mitigate the impact of climate change, the brutal truth is that huge swathes of the world are becoming uninhabitable。 From Bangladesh to Sudan to the western United States, and in cities from Cardiff to New Orleans to Shanghai, the quadruple threat of drought, heat, wildfires and flooding will utterly reshape Earth's human geography in the coming decades。

In this rousing call to arms, Royal Society Science Book Prize-winning author Gaia Vince describes how we can plan for and manage this unavoidable climate migration while we restore the planet to a fully habitable state。 The vital message of this book is that migration is not the problem - it's the solution。 Drawing on a wealth of eye-opening data and original reporting, Vince shows how migration brings benefits not only to migrants themselves, but to host countries, many of which face demographic crises and labour shortages。 As Vince describes, we will need to move northwards as a species, into the habitable fringes of Europe, Asia and Canada and the greening Arctic circle。

While the climate catastrophe is finally getting the attention it deserves, the inevitability of mass migration has been largely ignored。 In Nomad Century, Vince provides, for the first time, an examination of the most pressing question facing humanity。

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Reviews

Simms

I'm not sure who this book is really for。。。 The book is part explication of the dire consequences of a potential 4°C warming of global temperatures, part prediction of the ways human society will or may have to change due to migration, part suggestion of policies and plans that could or should be implemented to either slow the temperature rise or effectively deal with the migration 。。。 with mixed results。 As a warning of the effects of climate change, it is grim and unreassuring, as it no doubt I'm not sure who this book is really for。。。 The book is part explication of the dire consequences of a potential 4°C warming of global temperatures, part prediction of the ways human society will or may have to change due to migration, part suggestion of policies and plans that could or should be implemented to either slow the temperature rise or effectively deal with the migration 。。。 with mixed results。 As a warning of the effects of climate change, it is grim and unreassuring, as it no doubt is meant to be; indeed, the book seems most effective as a piece of scaremongering to get people motivated to address the climate (and I say that in the most positive sense)。 As a prediction of the changes to come, it is a mixed bag, sometimes intriguing (such as the discussion of projected changes in habitable zones in Greenland or Canada) and sometimes head-scratchingly pat (such as when the author flatly predicts that the greening of the electrical grid will have been accomplished by the time her children are in their 30s)。 The book also seems to entirely disregard predictions of any political ramifications of the predicted changes, including conflict; mass migration seems to be expected with tremendous peaceful cooperation between nations。 I understand that prediction of such geopolitical factors is wildly difficult, but without them it raises questions of the utility of the entire exercise。Likewise it is mixed as a collection of policy proposals。 Many are quite reasonable, if vague, but they are often things that the reader cannot possibly affect unless they work specifically in the fields of public policy or urban planning, or in the government more generally; more to the point, much of the suggestions regard the author's theorized newly-built cities in the far north, which are decades or more away from reality -- hopefully these urban-planning or government-employed readers are quite young! In other cases the proposals are vague to the point of irrelevancy or seem unmoored from reality, such as when the author proposes that private aircraft be banned unless they are electric (with seemingly little regard to the energy-density problems that render cost-effective all-electric air travel a pipe dream with current technology)。 In the end, the only real actionable takeaway the reader can get from this book is a broad "be more concerned about climate change!" (unless one is lucky enough to be a teenager who is dying to go into urban planning and has a really great memory)。 That's a fine lesson, to be sure, but reading 280-odd pages to get it is perhaps not worth the time commitment, and most people who are interested and receptive enough to the book's premise to actually pick it up are already going to be onboard。Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC。 。。。more

Kevin Halter

Nomad Century by Gaia Vince is an eye opening and for me sad read。The main premise of the book is that rising temperatures and accompanying results will necessitate that large portions of the global population will need to relocate to survive。 It is one of the first books that I've read which deals with things in a fairly pragmatic manor not arguing for a belief in Climate Change but instead addressing the ramifications of that change in an anthropological view。 The book itself is not all doom a Nomad Century by Gaia Vince is an eye opening and for me sad read。The main premise of the book is that rising temperatures and accompanying results will necessitate that large portions of the global population will need to relocate to survive。 It is one of the first books that I've read which deals with things in a fairly pragmatic manor not arguing for a belief in Climate Change but instead addressing the ramifications of that change in an anthropological view。 The book itself is not all doom and gloom and the author gives some very good advice on ways that things can change and possibly recover, BUT we need to be prepared if things get worse。 The author has hope that things can still be slowed or changed but as a reader, I'm sad to say, that I'm no longer sure I share that optimism。 The author also offers suggestions for government and global changes that would help facilitate the Great Migration of billions of people over the coming decades。Thank you to #NetGalley, #FlatironBooks, and Gaia Vince for the ARC of #NomadCentury。 。。。more