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Closing Reflections

To close the workshop, members of the workshop organizing committee offered reflections on the common themes, challenges, and opportunities described during the presentations and discussions. Danielle Poole (Yale School of Public Health) noted that the workshop’s intent was to bring together experts in a variety of disciplines and scholarship to explore how an Earth systems science perspective can advance the understanding of the impacts of climate change and human migration. A common theme that speakers pointed to is the importance of data and the data gaps, as well as approaches for data integration for a more holistic understanding of the different factors influencing migration, including but not limited to climate.

The workshop underscored how climate-related migration is an issue globally, Poole said. There are numerous stakeholders actively contributing to knowledge production related to climate migration models. A few presenters also noted the importance of engaging policymakers and model users to help researchers identify research priorities and questions. She also highlighted a few considerations in developing climate models and using the models to inform policies at local, national, and international levels including addressing model uncertainties, and risk communication. These discussions point to the importance of collaborative efforts in addressing the complex dynamics of climate migration.

Shanna McClain (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) highlighted some topics for further discussion. She noted that the workshop featured many conversations describing the complexity of modeling the different dimensions involved. More multidisciplinary research is important to better integrate the climate, environmental, and human dimensions.

McClain acknowledged that although there are challenges in overcoming research silos, there is increasing support for more collaborative approaches, including from federal research agencies. For example, she mentioned that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is working to roll out an Earth science-to-action strategy focused on societal benefit as part of advancing the scientific missions. McClain said that it is critical to sustain attention and financial support for transdisciplinary efforts that include a social science perspective, as well as the importance of incorporating Indigenous knowledge and human rights–based approaches that can provide key insights into what drives people to move, whether internally or internationally and whether temporarily or permanently.

She also suggested that it would be helpful to extend conversations about climate-related hazards and potential drivers of migration outside of academic spheres to include practitioners, lawmakers, and those involved with funding. As an example, she highlighted the recently launched NASA Lifelines program,¹ which is focused on bridging the gaps between Earth science and humanitarian action. “I’m hoping that the more we have efforts like this bringing science communities together with practitioner communities, the better changes we can make,” she said.

Elizabeth Fussell (Brown University) reiterated the value of all the work in integrating climate exposure and human response data, while also recognizing existing challenges. She suggested that to inform future efforts, focusing on the key questions that need to be answered and the types of discoveries that would be most useful to address those questions would be useful. She added that social science data are essential to understanding opportunities to target resources toward those who are most at risk of being either displaced or locked in place.

To illustrate some of the complexities of data availability and use in understanding climate-related migration, Fussell highlighted research on the migration response after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. While many sources of data can shed light on this disaster and its aftermath—including data from social media, transportation statistics, consumer records, administrative data, surveys, and more—she said that it is important to consider not only what questions each type of data could be used to answer but also who could access the data and the time period covered. A study of population change due to outmigration after the hurricane showed the significance of various data types in understanding the magnitude and timing of the effect (Acosta et al. 2020). Fussell emphasized the importance of considering both short- and long-term perspectives in hazard analysis, and also highlighted how complex historical and socioeconomic factors may influence the impacts of climate crises and subsequent migration responses.

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¹ See https://nasalifelines.org (accessed July 1, 2024).

To conclude, Fussell highlighted a resource that was shared with her during the workshop, called the Local Environmental Observatory (LEO) Network,² LEO Network is a platform to share environmental-related events or observations. In Kotzebue, Alaska, a resident reported on LEO that a lake near her house had suddenly drained, which led to exchange of knowledge between residents and scientists to figure out what had caused the lake to drain. It was ultimately determined to be the result of a complex chain of environmental causes, including the activity of beavers, among other factors. Fussell said that this illustrates a point made by several speakers on how partnerships between scientists and local community members can reveal the complex relationships between environmental changes and habitability of places.

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² See https://www.leonetwork.org (accessed July 1, 2024).

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