The impacts of climate change have begun to promote large-scale human migration to more hospitable areas, and this trend is set to accelerate (IPCC, 2022). Some estimate that hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by the end of the century. While much of this migration will be within countries, some will be between nations, requiring international coordination. As both climate migration and its coverage in the media increase, will climate migrants be accepted by receiving communities? Will existing political conflicts affect support for climate migrants or mitigation efforts?
More than a dozen interdisciplinary scholars and practitioners shared their knowledge and discussed the issues surrounding climate change induced migration at a virtual workshop on October 7, 2022.
Watch Workshop Recording
Agenda
9:00am Welcome + Opening Keynote Address 9:45am Panel Discussion on Climate Change & Migration: Politics, Policy, & Predictions! 10:45am Multi-Disciplinary Academic Presentations: Latest Research on the Human Cost of Climate Change
Note that all agenda items are in eastern daylight time. Event closed captioning provided.
Keynote Address
Eric Schwartz is a Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and former president of Refugees International, a non-governmental organization which advocates for lifesaving assistance, human rights, and protection for displaced people. As part of their Climate Displacement Program and other initiatives, Refugees International promotes solutions to displacement crises. Eric has focused his career on humanitarian and human rights issues, previously serving as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration where he strengthened the State Department’s humanitarian advocacy around the world and instituted key enhancements to the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
Eric Schwartz Professor, University of Minnesota Former President of Refugees International
Eric Schwartz is a Professor at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and former president of Refugees International, a non-governmental organization which advocates for lifesaving assistance, human rights, and protection for displaced people. As part of their Climate Displacement Program and other initiatives, Refugees International promotes solutions to displacement crises. Eric has focused his career on humanitarian and human rights issues, previously serving as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration where he is credited with strengthening the State Department’s humanitarian advocacy around the world.
Canadian Music Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Don Shafer will lead a practitioner panel of climate change and migration experts, dissecting the challenges of the climate crisis and climate refugees. Discussion will center on how to encourage greater recognition and understanding of the complexity of climate related migration among policy makers, the media, and the public.
Don Shafer Moderator Broadcaster/Podcaster PhD Student, University of British Columbia
Don Shafer is a veteran broadcaster/podcaster, settler scholar, and community activist. A lifetime learner, after retiring from Bell Media in 2014 Don completed his master’s degree in 2018, started his own radio station, and is currently a PhD student with the Social Justice Institute at University of British Columbia where he researches how people talk about climate change and its interconnectedness with settler colonialism, white supremacy, and other intersecting social justice issues. His work explores how these conversational ecosystems influence our thinking and meaning-making.
Ama Francis is a Climate Displacement Project Strategist at the International Refugee Assistance Project, a nonprofit organizing law students and lawyers to develop and enforce a set of legal and human rights for refugees and displaced persons. Ama is also a Fellow at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and an Executive Board Member of the New York Climate Alliance.
Rod Schoonover is the founder and CEO of the Ecological Futures Group, which focuses on the security implications of global ecological disruption and climate change. Rod is an internationally recognized expert in this space, having previously served within the U.S. National Intelligence Council and State Department.
Somini Sengupta is the international climate reporter for The New York Times and anchor of the twice-weekly Climate Forward newsletter. An award-winning foreign correspondent, Somini has reported from more than 40 countries around the world.
Amanda Carrico is an Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder whose interdisciplinary work on the behavioral dimensions of environmental conservation and adaptation to environmental change draws on mixed methods from psychology, sociology, demography, and economics. Her current research explores how environmental stress can shape migration and processes of adaptation to water scarcity in agricultural communities.
João Graça is an Assistant Professor of Communication and Cognition at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and Associate Researcher at the University of Lisbon (Portugal). His research identifies pathways toward sustainability, and develops communication models and products that help materialize them. Areas of focus include sustainable food consumption and program design and evaluation with vulnerable populations.
Seth Guikema is a Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan whose work focuses on the issues of resilience, risk, sustainability, and equity, particularly in areas prone to significant natural hazards. His group uses risk analysis, machine learning, modeling, and simulations to develop and test new methods to better understand problems of societal importance.
Solomon Hsiang is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley where he directs the Global Policy Laboratory. His team integrates econometrics, spatial data science, and machine learning to answer questions central to rationally managing planetary resources, such as the economic value of the global climate.
Robert McLeman is a Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. His research specializes in the human dimensions of environmental change, with particular attention to the relationship between environment and human migration, community adaptation to climatic variability and change, and fostering citizen participation in environmental science.
Kaitlin Raimi is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan Ford School. As a social/environmental psychologist, her interests center on how individuals can promote or prevent sustainable behaviors and policies.
Sukanya Roy is a doctoral student at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business Program in Management & Organizations. In collaboration with the other event organizers, Sukanya studies the promise and risk of framing climate change as a migration issue.
Julia Lee Cunningham is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a National Geographic Fellow. Julia studies the psychology of narratives, lay theories, and behavior ethics, and strives to promote the use of scientific evidence in diagnosing and addressing critical problems in public policy and business practices.
Nathan Geiger is an Assistant Professor of Communication Science at the Indiana University Media School. He conducts experimental and survey research across media types to examine how people become motivated and empowered to take action on climate change and other environmental issues.
Ash Gillis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow studying the psychological impacts and political depolarization of climate change at Vanderbilt University’s Climate Change Prediction Market and Climate Change Research Network. Their expertise in environmental psychology informs their approach to understanding and leveraging individuals’ motivations to support climate change mitigation, including tempering unintended backfiring effects of climate change communication strategies.
Melanie Sarge is an Assistant Professor at the Indiana University Media School with expertise in persuasive communication. Her research examines message factors and human biases that influence selection, processing, and comprehension of health and science information.
At the Graham Sustainability Institute, our dedication to academic excellence for the public good is inseparable from our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our mission of engaging, empowering, and supporting faculty, staff, and students to foster sustainability solutions includes ensuring that each member of our community thrives. We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion are key to empowerment, and the advancement of sustainability knowledge, learning, and leadership, see our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page.
