Book cover titled "North: The Future of Post-Climate America" by Jesse M. Keenan, featuring an illustration of houses and a ladder reaching into a cloudy sky.

Climate change is already influencing how and where people live.

In North: The Future of Post-Climate America, Jesse M. Keenan argues that America is entering a new era marked by shifts in population that will transform everything from the physical landscape of cities to electoral politics. First, Keenan examines how human mobility is shaped by the environment and the economy. Next, he provides a conceptual and empirical overview of adaptation science, with a focus on how people, governments, and markets are preparing for and responding to climate impacts. He documents how physical impacts in the built environment, escalating costs, and public sector inertia are converging to drive people out of high-risk areas, while, at the same time, certain other areas are attracting people who seek a more sustainable way of life. North is not just a collection of scientific observations and projections about the peril of those left behind. It is also a projection of optimism about America's capacity for decarbonization, environmental stewardship, and economic mobility for those on the move.

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  • “Jesse Keenan is a really smart guy with a really big idea: Climate change will shape where many of us will live, and that will rearrange our cities, our landscape, and our society. North will change the way you think about tomorrow.”

    — Michael Grunwald, New York Times bestselling author of The Swamp, The New New Deal, and We Are Eating the Earth

  • "From the man who brought us Duluth: North is a persuasive, clear-eyed, and deeply researched guide to the future of climate migration. Jesse Keenan, the authority on this subject, has written an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to understand the complex and often counterintuitive dynamics defining the world to come."

    — Nathaniel Rich, author of Losing Earth and Second Nature

  • "The climate crisis--and the question of where Americans will migrate in response--is inextricably mingled with economic factors like insurance, mortgages, and banking. No one knows this material better than Keenan, who has woven it beautifully into an exploration of America's future."

    — Abrahm Lustgarten, author of On the Move

  • "Climate-driven migration is upon us. North is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how and why people relocate when temperatures rise. With more people on the move, winners and losers have emerged. Importantly, Jesse Keenan shows how all of us can gain."

    — Alice C. Hill, Council on Foreign Relations

  • "We need to live differently, in different places, as the physical effects of climate change accelerate, but who will make these decisions and pay for them is unclear--to everyone except Jesse Keenan, whose unrivaled expertise and wealth of insights are captured in this astonishing book. North spells out our shared opportunity as a society to make choices that will lead to better lives, while revealing the inside story of what has gone wrong so far on the policy front. We all need to listen to Keenan, and we are lucky he has written North for all of us."

    — Susan Crawford, author of Charleston: Race, Water, and the Coming Storm

  • "In this bold and visionary book, Jesse Keenan delivers a wake-up call on one of the most underrecognized consequences of climate instability: migration. Drawing on his unique insight across academia, government, and industry, Keenan charts a transdisciplinary path through the causes, consequences, and responses to climate-driven human mobility. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how to preserve democracy and well-being in the face of the coming population upheaval."

    — Karen Chapple, Director of the School of Cities and Professor of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, and Professor Emerita, University of California Berkeley

  • "As the climate changes, America’s plants and animals are shifting northward as their habitat changes; it makes perfect sense that people will, too. Jesse Keenan has spent years studying “climigrants” and their effects on society, culture, housing, and business—and now it’s America’s turn. Lucky for us, the man knows how to write, how to advise, and how to persuade. Spoiler: He’s surprisingly optimistic about the results."

    — David Pogue, "CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent and author of How to Prepare for Climate Change

  • “Keenan is a recognized expert on climate adaptation. In North, he combines cutting edge scholarship with an in-depth discussion of the push and pull factors that are already causing Americans to seek safer climate locations. Keenan observes that the private sector and market forces driven by rising insurance costs, falling real estate values, and a greater risk of climate damage are leading the ‘climigration.’ Keenan's core message rings true: although nowhere is truly a climate haven, Americans will continue to adapt by moving away from areas prone to hotter temperatures, wildfires, droughts, sea level rise, floods, and hurricanes. Keenan strikes a note of optimism for northern places that receive climigrants as having the opportunity to create sustainable and equitable communities. This is an important book not just for policymakers and financial managers, but for any American concerned about the future.”

    — Tom Daniels, Crossways Professor of Urban Planning, University of Pennsylvania

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