The Climate Crisis and Migration to the Midwest
How the climate emergency will continue pushing coastal cities towards climate-resilient ones
By Alessandra Benitez
We’re constantly hearing about and grappling with the effects of climate change, being reminded of how urgently things must change, and just how irreversible it will all be. Yet, while the impendence of doomsday is constantly drilled into our minds, it still feels like a far-off reality for many of us. But it is not.
One of the reasons global warming is such a complex topic is that there is really no way of knowing what the full effects of it will look like, at least at this current moment in time. There is no way of fully predicting to what extent the greenhouse gasses heating up the planet will affect people’s lives. However, the research that is present is by no means optimistic for many southern countries and cities, meaning climate change is well on its way to becoming the main cause of mass migration. In 2020, 30 million people migrated due to weather-related disasters, while wildfires in the U.S. displaced more than a million Americans. Certain cities like Duluth have already seen an influx of people moving there to escape the side effects of climate change. But why is Minnesota, especially Minneapolis and Duluth, such an attractive destination when it comes to climate change migration?
Full disclosure, I am not an Environmental Science major, so there are a lot of things about climate change that I don’t know about. As someone who’s a liberal arts student, I'm really good at reading about climate change, and pretty bad at understanding the data. But in all seriousness, I have no idea what is going to happen. In the interest of seeking a knowledgeable perspective, I asked Kobe Knettel, current president of the Environmental Student Association, for information about the subject. When it comes to the effects climate change will have on migration, Knettel stated: “In general, it is expected that the southern hemisphere, including populations living near the equator, will experience the most heating– in the sense that some of these areas will be inhabitable. Which pushes these already socioeconomically disadvantaged populations North, specifically [into] the Midwest”. To be specific, the Southern Hemisphere endured up to 95% of water loss over the past 2 decades. Water is life, it is impossible to fathom any organisms on Earth being able to survive without fresh water. Around 70% of the human body is made up of water, and it is impossible to survive more than a few days without it. Unfortunately, major global warming effects will affect the amount of water available forever.
The migration to the Midwest is due to a multitude of factors, including access to natural resources like clean water, fresh air, and forests that do a lot in terms of regulating temperatures. Knettel also highlighted the ecological advantages that Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan have because of the multitude of lakes running through these states, since The Great Lakes essentially absorb a lot of heat and act as natural air conditioning for the cities surrounding them. Duluth is a great example of this, and it’s why Duluth has become such a popular destination for those displaced due to extreme weather caused by global warming.
Apart from its ecological advantages, Minnesota has also instated policies that will move the state into using more renewable energy and thus reduce the effects of climate change. In October 2019, the Metropolitan Council reviewed and approved Minneapolis 2040, a plan that will be used to guide decision-making that affects our city's long-term future, taking into account the economic and environmental sectors. The plan aims to reduce greenhouse emissions by 80% by 2050 through a series of community support programs for businesses to move into renewable energy. According to the 2040 comprehensive plan, the City of Minneapolis will strive to substantially increase the energy efficiency of buildings by retrofitting existing buildings and improving the design of new buildings. It will also work to accelerate the transition to renewable energy in buildings and transportation. While this is certainly good news, it is important to take into consideration how much a rise in migration from coastal cities will impact the rise in climate change as well. No state, no city, or no country is immune to the side effects of global warming. As Knettel put it, the harsh reality is that the climate is going to continue to warm and also get drier. It is only the places where it will remain the most habitable that will ultimately see the largest increase in population.
In addition to the extreme heat the southern hemisphere has to worry about, the north also has environmental threats that cannot be ignored. Knettel highlighted that as the climate continues to degrade, scientists will find out more and more about what that means for systems that are important in regulating global habitability. For example, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which has a huge impact on the climate in the northern hemisphere, is slowing. The AMOC transports heat and nutrients from the tropics to the Northern Hemisphere and across the equator. If it were to collapse —which it can since it’s slowing down— it would not only cause a rise of the sea level in coastal areas, but it could also decrease sea level temperatures in the northern Atlantic by 10 degrees, which would then eventually essentially freeze the northern hemisphere.
Climate change is an extremely nuanced topic, but there is no doubt that it is happening and it will affect the whole world exponentially. While Minneapolis and Duluth are certainly more resilient than others and they are implementing plans to keep it that way, climate change is something that the whole world contributes to and thus the whole world will feel its effects. Unfortunately, even those countries or states that don’t contribute much to climate change will suffer the consequences of others’ neglect. For example, several places such as New York and Pakistan have had major floods this past summer. Not to mention that it is the middle of February in Minnesota and the weather keeps going up to 60 degrees! This is the scary reality we’re living in.
While the future may seem bleak, it’s important to not hold your head down so low. It’s especially important to consider the amount of pollution that larger corporations generate and can get away with because of the laws that allow it. Just look at 3M or Xcel Energy here in Minnesota, not too far from Minneapolis. Negligence from companies like these is a critical component to advancing climate change exponentially faster than is possible through sole individual consumer choices. Just look at how much nuclear waste Xcel leaked from its Monticello plant in 2023 alone. And let’s not forget the Dakota Access Pipeline –which is not only invading native land— it also pollutes by releasing greenhouse gasses and were it to spill it would also contaminate the drinking water surrounding it. It is especially important to hold big companies as well as governments accountable for their actions in order to truly start to make a difference in the topic of climate change.
https://minneapolis2040.com/goals/climate-change-resilience/#:~:text=Climate%20change%20resilience%3A%20In%202040,greenhouse%20gas%20emissions%20by%202050.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/climate-migration-101-explainer#:~:text=And%20within%20countries%2C%20climate%20change,and%20other%20climate%2Drelated%20threats.
https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/how-does-climate-change-affect-migration
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/climate/climate-migration-duluth.html
https://minneapolis2040.com/overview/#:~:text=The%20Metropolitan%20Council%20completed%20review,effect%20on%20January%201%2C%202020.
https://ncas.ac.uk/what-is-the-atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation-and-its-role-for-our-planet/#:~:text=The%20AMOC%20powers%20the%20poleward,becomes%20cooler%20and%20then%20denser.
https://eos.org/articles/global-water-loss-happens-almost-entirely-in-the-southern-hemisphere#:~:text=A%20recent%20study%20suggests%20that,water%20than%20the%20Northern%20Hemisphere.