In this episode of Connect the Dots, host Rob Verchick talks climate migration with CPR Member Scholar Maxine Burkett, NRDC advocate and third-generation Mexican-American Gina Ramirez, and Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard University.
Imagine a world where an afternoon thunderstorm floods your basement with sewage and industrial pollutants. You come to dread the rain. Summer spaces that used to be dedicated to water balloon fights and bike rides become venues for wildfires and hurricanes. A hard day’s work leads to an even harder battle with disease. It all may sound like a nightmare, but then again, it doesn’t compare to the situation your family previously faced, starving and fending off violence when your livelihood was destroyed by drought. These are some of the realities encountered by climate change migrants around the country. The planet is getting hotter, drier, wetter, and weirder. And marginalized groups of many types are in the bull’s eye.
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For more information related to this episode:
More on Our Guests:
 | Maxine Burkett is a Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and a Member Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform. She teaches Climate Change Law and Policy, Torts, Ocean and Coastal Law, and International Environmental Law. View bio. |
 | Gina Ramirez is a senior program assistant at NRDC, where she works to further sustainable land use and zoning rules that can provide crucial protections to areas of Chicago, like the Southeast Side, that are burdened with cumulative industrial pollution. Ramirez is an active member of the Coalition to Ban Petcoke and the Southeast Environmental Taskforce. She has a MA focused in sociology from Roosevelt University and BA in communications from DePaul University. View bio. |
 | Aaron Bernstein is the Interim Director of The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE), a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. View bio. |
Related CPR Resources:
- Reaching Higher Ground: Avenues to Secure and Manage New Land for Communities Displaced by Climate Change
- Climate Justice: State Courts and the Fight for Equity
- Toxic Floodwaters: Public Health Risks and Vulnerability to Chemical Spills Triggered by Extreme Weather
- The Age of Climate Migration: A Connect the Dots Podcast
Other resources:
- Are We Thinking About Climate Migration All Wrong?, Rolling Stone
- The Great Climate Migration, The New York Times
- The Great Climate Migration Begins, Slate
- Climate Change Is Altering Migration Patterns Regionally and Globally, Center for American Progress
- The climate crisis, migration, and refugees, The Brookings Institution
- How Climate Migration Will Reshape America, The New York Times
Special thanks to:
- The College of Law at Loyola University New Orleans
- The College of Music and Media at Loyola University New Orleans
We’re also grateful to the musical artists featured in this episode, who make their work available to us through a Creative Commons license. Please check them out!
