Reviews - The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration

547 reviews for:

The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration

Jake Bittle

4.31 AVERAGE

readingwithk's review against another edition

5.0

informative medium-paced

mmmmmumma's review against another edition

3.25

Going with the 3 star implying the book was good, I think the book was good it painted a picture of something in the future which is bleak, in the end trying to paint a positive light towards faith in business and governments (which I don't necessarily think is justified) but did so without fearmongering. I think that's fine it was good for what it's supposed to do. My only gripe is it may have had one too many examples cases and too short of where do we go from here point that kinda made the book meander

taratearex's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

This was really good and very engaging, I think because it was told in personal story form it made for a great audiobook. Would definitely recommend to everyone, and I think if you don't read a lot of nonfiction the personal story format is great. I think the author did a great job of condensing a lot of history of the areas he talked about, it definitely made me want more info sometimes, but the focus was more on how it is now with a brief explainer of how we got here- I think that structure worked well. It did occasionally get repetitive, but not really in a bad way, just in a "all these climate disasters follow the same pattern" and that's pretty depressing, I think it emphasized the point, but later in the book you could just see exactly what was going to happen before it did because of the completely corrupt system.

It's definitely a tough book to read in that sense, we have made so many choices- mostly based on racism and greed- and although the disasters keep coming, more frequently and worse every year, money and racism still rule most of the decisions being made and people with the power continue to not see any urgency to fix things. I think there was also a missing piece about supporting land back and Indigenous rights at the end, that through line from his research of the past did not quite make it to his conclusion for the future.

Related, I must note that I was surprised the author used the phrase "low on the totem pole" to describe something, surprised to see that in a recent book and one where the author researched Indigenous people in the areas he focused on.

rebeccazacuto's review against another edition

4.5

Feels like required reading. I found the storytelling to be very compelling, following individuals and families who have been most vulnerable to climate disaster and victim to forced displacement. Reading this during Hurricane Helene was not planned, but extremely topical. I appreciate the ways in which the author describes at the end that corporations and the federal government are responsible and calls for a need for decarbonization (though I think that call can go father) and through the case studies describes public and private sector failures. It’s hard not to feel like this is the future that awaits us all.