Dr. Omur Damla Kuru’s team found that when city dwellers moved to rural Northeast towns during the pandemic, housing could not keep up, prices climbed and lower-income residents bore the heaviest burden.

"We are not safe from climate risks that could cause danger to people and property," the mayor says.

Traces of eDNA from 126 fish species have been sampled far north of their documented ranges in the Japan Pacific, offering clues to possible migration as ocean waters warm.

Madhav Ghimire still carries the keys to his home. For years, those keys opened the door to the six-room house he shared with his partner in Devighat, Nepal. Then, on August 26, 2026, a catastrophic flood tore through communities along the Trishuli River after part of the Langtang Lirung glacier collapsed near Nepal's border with China's Tibet region. When Ghimire returned, the landscape had changed so dramatically that he could no longer tell where his house once stood. He kept the keys anyway. “Though I lost everything, I have still carried the keys of my home,” Ghimire told Reuters. “It gives me a sense that I have everything.” His story captures something that statistics about climate displacement can struggle to convey, that displacement is not simply movement from one place to another. It often means losing a home, a livelihood, a community, and the expectation that there will eventually be somewhere familiar to return. In Betrawati, another community in Nepal devastated by the flood, survivors returned to what Reuters described as an expanse of gray silt. Homes, businesses, farmland, and pieces of everyday life had disappeared beneath mud and debris. By September 18, at least 1,386 people had been killed...

Madhav Ghimire still carries the keys to his home. For years, those keys opened the door to the six-room house he shared with his partner in Devighat, Nepal. Then, on August 26, 2026, a catastrophic flood tore through communities along the Trishuli River after part of the Langtang Lirung glacier collapsed near Nepal's border with China's Tibet region. When Ghimire returned, the landscape had changed so dramatically that he could no longer tell where his house once stood. He kept the keys anyway. “Though I lost everything, I have still carried the keys of my home,” Ghimire told Reuters. “It gives me a sense that I have everything.” His story captures something that statistics about climate displacement can struggle to convey, that displacement is not simply movement from one place to another. It often means losing a home, a livelihood, a community, and the expectation that there will eventually be somewhere familiar to return. In Betrawati, another community in Nepal devastated by the flood, survivors returned to what Reuters described as an expanse of gray silt. Homes, businesses, farmland, and pieces of everyday life had disappeared beneath mud and debris. By September 18, at least 1,386 people had been killed...

The report said Asia and the Pacific coastlines are central to the region’s economic future, generating around $7 trillion in annual economic output, but face intensifying threats.

Every year, climate disasters force millions of people to leave their homes. In the aftermath of floods, fires, and droughts, they face the challenge of finding a new place to rebuild their lives. They’re part of a growing population of people on the move without specific legal protections, commonly referred to as climate migrants. Most move within their country, while others seek refuge across borders. The hotter the planet grows, the higher the number of climate migrants is expected to climb. At the low end, predictions point to at least 44 million people displaced internally across the globe by 2050. That kind of planetary churn is the equivalent of rehoming the entire population of Argentina. Very few places are planning for this possibility. Last fall, when Governor JB Pritzker signed the Climate Displacement Act, Illinois became the only state in the country trying to anticipate the ways in which climate-driven migration could transform life for its existing residents and those who may come. The law established a task force to investigate how domestic and international climate migration patterns could test Illinois’ infrastructure, resources, and residents. The first-of-its-kind law requires the newly-formed team to publish two reports over the next year...

When Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Climate Displacement Act last fall, Illinois became the only state in the country to enact legislation aimed at anticipating the ways in which climate-driven migration could transform life for its existing residents and those who may come after climate disasters elsewhere. The law established a task force to investigate how domestic and international climate migration patterns could test Illinois’ infrastructure, resources and residents. And it required the newly formed team to publish two reports over the next two years outlining the state’s ability to address climate migration through at least 2050. If Illinois succeeds, it could become a blueprint for how states make room for those displaced by climate catastrophes. But only a year later, state officials have largely neglected their plans. Lawmakers have pushed back reporting deadlines and are yet to convene the task force, even though the first report is due in December. Climate disasters force millions of people to leave their homes every year, growing the population of those commonly referred to as climate migrants who are on the move without specific legal protections. In the aftermath of floods, fires, and droughts, they face the challenge of finding a new place...

Climate extremes influence migration, but their long-term and compounding impacts are understudied. The authors show that associations between climate extremes and migration vary by hazard type, timin...

A Spokane family's nursery tested positive for lead after wildfire, but no agency covers homes that survived too well.

At Terra Madre 2026, farmers, Indigenous leaders and rural communities from around the world will examine how climate shocks, land pressure and failing rural economies are forcing people to leave their homes, and what it takes to create the conditions for them to stay. For Slow Food, climate migration cannot be understood as a consequence of rising temperatures alone. Droughts, floods and extreme weather are part of the picture, but so are decisions about land ownership, water access, agricultural policies, public investment flows and whether rural communities are granted a future. The climate crisis is intensifying existing inequalities, making it increasingly difficult for millions of people to sustain their livelihoods where they live. Yet, migration is usually discussed only when people are already on the move, while far less attention is paid to the pressures that made leaving unavoidable in the first place. At Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2026, Slow Food will bring together farmers, Indigenous peoples, food producers, researchers and policymakers from across the world to explore how the climate crisis is intensifying existing inequalities and share how communities are finding ways to stay, thrive, and protect their futures “The right to move is fundamental. But the right...

Pakistan’s climate disasters are driving displacement and migration, demanding stronger adaptation, recovery and migration policies.

The images coming out of Nepal are difficult to comprehend. A glacial collapse in the Langtang region, followed by a devastating flash flood through the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli river system, has once again reminded us that the Himalayas are not merely magnificent mountains. They are living, moving, increasingly unstable ecosystems — and millions of lives downstream depend on their stability. The August 26 disaster is still unfolding. Nepal’s authorities are continuing search and rescue operations, and casualty figures are changing rapidly. By August 31, international reports were putting the combined death toll at more than 900, with thousands still missing. Hundreds of workers were reportedly trapped in hydropower tunnels. Nepal’s own Ministry of Home Affairs says the full human and material damage is still being assessed, and that long-term rehabilitation of survivors will be as critical as immediate rescue. But there is a question that we must ask beyond the immediate tragedy: Where will the survivors go when the mountains around them become increasingly difficult to inhabit? And another, perhaps even more uncomfortable one: Could Nepal become South Asia’s next major climate-migration hotspot — perhaps the “new Bangladesh” of climate mobility? The comparison is deliberately provocative. Nepal and Bangladesh face very...