A Tipping Point on Climate: It’s about people, not degrees Celsius

The summer of 2021 will likely go down as a tipping point on the climate problem in North America. It is no longer about the number of degrees of warming or whether or not science says we are at a point of no return. Rather, this summer will mark the start of when climate change became the driver of deep social change in North America.

Everyone knows the news: smoke-filled skies with “don’t breathe the air” warnings, the Colorado River running out of water, a surprise 17 inches of rain in a few hours in central Tennessee, a hurricane in Massachusetts. Along with these are the breathless questions: Is this climate change? Are we past the point of no return? What can I do?

But in the back of many people’s minds is a far different question which will mark the change in 2021. That question is: Can I stay here? And it’s corollary is: If not, where do I go?

Up until now, the impact of climate change was remote — ice bergs in Antarctica, methane gas releases in the permafrost, rain in Greenland. That changes when you can’t breathe the air or there is no water to drink. People cannot last long that way. Given our will to survive, people will find another way.

For most, that “other way” is to move. So begins the great climate migration of North America.

There isn’t any easy answer to where people will go. Many in California were relocating to Montana and Idaho, but this summer, Montana started catching…