Climate Refugees

As with wildfires, floods, and drought, connecting the dots between anthropogenic climate change and human migration is difficult. So I admire a story that explores the likely prospect of climate-driven refugees through the lens of recent environmental disasters. Joanna Kakissis pulls it off in this superb NYT story. I got to know Joanna last year, when both of us were Fellows at the University of Colorado's Center for Environmental Journalism. She's a talented reporter. When I heard she was going to Bangladesh, I knew a story on "climate refugees" would be a tough nut to crack. But I think she sets the right tone near the beginning of her Times piece, with this: