Study Results Force Choice Between Ignorance And Racism

Let’s say you’re a climate-change denialist who believes that the worst threat to this country comes from darker-skinned people, particularly those who speak Spanish and head here from points south. Congratulations, you represent the current mainstream of Republican party thinking! But also, how would you wrap your head around something like this?

A wave of up to 6.7 million migrants from Mexico could head to the United States to escape the ravages of climate change on crops, say the authors of a new study. The findings are claimed to be the first to thoroughly quantify how shifts in global climate might affect human migration from one region to another.

The study’s authors, from Princeton University in New Jersey, say the United States should prepare for the arrival of up to 10% of Mexico’s adult population over the next 70 years as a result of falling agricultural productivity due to climate change.

To deny or to demagogue? Why must life be full of such hard choices?