NOMAD CENTURY

How to save life on Earth.

British science writer Vince, a former editor at Nature and New Scientist and author of Adventures in the Anthropocene, mounts compelling dual arguments: Global warming must be controlled, and on a planet beset by fire, heat, drought, and flood, mass migration will be necessary for survival. “Fleeing the tropics, the coasts and formerly arable lands, huge populations will need to seek new homes,” the author predicts; “you will be among them, or you will be receiving them.” In a text that bristles with urgency, Vince counters “anti-migration rhetoric and misinformation” with abundant evidence showing that immigrants make positive economic, social, and cultural contributions to the society in which they settle. With an aging population throughout Europe, she notes, “there’s an economic imperative to increase immigration—to keep the elderly dependency ratios low.” Welcoming these migrants, however, requires a sea change in attitude about national identity. “We need to look at the world afresh,” Vince writes, “and develop new plans based on geology, geography and ecology—not politics.” Vince suggests establishing a “global UN Migration Organization” to manage relocation of refugees and formulate a humane immigration policy. Furthermore, with most migrants gravitating to cities, crucial changes must occur in infrastructure and urban planning. Migrant cities, she writes, must be “affordable, ideally use no more electricity or water than they generate themselves, not contribute greenhouse gas emissions, and not worsen biodiversity loss.” The redistribution of populations, however, will not reverse unsustainable behaviors and policies, and Vince devotes much of her well-researched book to considering bold changes. “The first step,” she writes, “is to decarbonize electricity production; the next is to power everything possible with electricity,” including electrified public and personal transport. She predicts that humans’ diet necessarily will become “plant, fungus, algae-based,” with insects “the most versatile and appropriate livestock.” Geoengineering innovations may deflect heat away from Earth, and wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal power can obviate the burning of fossil fuels.

A striking manifesto for sweeping change.