In my case I did not have to migrate to another country, I just had to become internally displaced because there were options within my own country.
I had to leave my home in California two years ago and start all over again at 63 because of climate change impacts. And I was lucky to be able to do so. It's expensive to move 2,500 miles.
I didn’t want a lung disease from breathing toxic wildfire smoke and I didn’t fancy dying in melting plastic while stuck in traffic trying to flee one of these new mega fires. I was also concerned about the cost of our home insurance going up 50 percent or more per year and perhaps becoming unavailable and our well perhaps running dry. And I wanted to get away while I could still sell my house there. And I’m not alone, many here have left the American West for similar reasons.
Over the next few decades as climate change impacts intensify we will see hundreds of millions of people forced to move and tens of millions of those will be internally displaced US citizens.
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