Essay Submission from Deven R. Weiss

Climate change has made many parts of the world less inhabitable, with rising sea levels, hazardous heat, intensifying natural disasters, increased water scarcity, and reduced food security. According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, 35 percent of the world population will face substantial environmental threats by 2050, and the United Nations has projected that 67 percent of the world population will experience significant water shortages by 2050. Experts predict that hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by climate change during the next few decades, and a global migration crisis will result. The vast majority of climate refugees live in the Global South, which includes Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and the Caribbean, and the obligation to house and accommodate climate refugees likely will fall primarily on the Global North, including North America, Europe, and Australia. Still, we should expect the greatest responsibility to fall on the United States, the wealthiest country in the world. The Midwest, the best-positioned region in the United States to absorb climate refugees, can advance America’s global engagement in the next generation by serving as a global model in its approach to accommodating and incorporating climate refugees into society.

The Midwest is uniquely positioned to serve as a safe haven for future climate refugees, and present the world with a model for integrating climate refugees. The region has a long history of welcoming immigrants, beginning with Europeans in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the last half-century has seen a tremendous influx of Latinos in Chicago, Arabs and South Asians in Detroit, and Somalis and Hmong in Minneapolis. In addition, experts project that the Midwest will suffer fewer adverse effects from climate change than other regions in the United States, as it’s comparatively well-insulated from rising sea levels, extreme heat and droughts, wildfires, and tropical storms. Importantly, the Midwest has critical access to the Great Lakes, which contain more than 20 percent of the world’s freshwater (more than 90 percent of the United States’ freshwater) and provide more than 10,000 miles of coastline (more than the East Coast and West Coast combined). As we prepare for a world with substantially increased water scarcity, the Great Lakes have greater significance and can be an essential source for a “blue economy” that uses freshwater for sustainable economic development. The blue economy, evidenced by PsiQuantum’s development of a $1 billion quantum computing facility on Chicago’s south side, can address water scarcity and provide job opportunities for climate refugees, much like industrialization provided job opportunities for European immigrants to the Midwest 150 years ago. In addition to the abundant freshwater, the Midwest also is home to more than 125 million acres of some of the most fertile and productive farmland in the world. The region already sources about one-third of the world’s soy and corn production, and Chicago is a major transportation and logistics hub with access to all major railroads and the Great Lakes. With climate change likely to devastate farmland throughout much of the world, the farmland in the Midwest can become a greater source of the world’s food supply, again providing job opportunities for climate refugees. Innovation also will be of paramount importance as the world tackles the forthcoming climate refugee crisis, and the Midwest has a long history of fostering innovation, including at companies such as Ford, Archer Daniels Midland, and Motorola. The Midwest sits on large mineral and rare earth element deposits that are crucial for clean energy manufacturing, and “Silicon Prairie," a hub for agricultural and green technology, is rapidly expanding across Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas. The Midwest is home to world-renowned universities, national laboratories, and a strong manufacturing industry, all of which can provide significant education and job opportunities to climate refugees. Finally, the Midwest has more affordable housing than most of the East Coast, most of the West Coast, and parts of the South, as well as abundant land available for new housing construction, which will surely be needed for climate refugees. With these unique attributes, the Midwest can advance America’s engagement with the world and provide a safe haven for climate refugees.

The Midwest’s approach to accommodating and incorporating climate refugees into society can be a model for the rest of the world to follow. To take advantage of the Midwest’s extraordinary resources, principal stakeholders across the Midwest – state and local governments, private industry, non-profits and philanthropists, and universities – must coordinate, collaborate, and partner with each other, the U.S. government, and multinational institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank, to establish, implement, and prioritize long-term policies designed to create a safe haven for climate refugees, similar to how world governments and multinational institutions coordinated responses to worldwide public health issues in the past (such as AIDS and smallpox). Policies must be designed to promote water-based technology and innovation, boost crop productivity, create job and educational opportunities for climate refugees, and construct affordable housing for refugees. A herculean effort from principal stakeholders will be necessary to successfully establish a safe haven for tens of millions of climate refugees in the Midwest, but the Midwest has resources and attributes that uniquely qualify it for this undertaking. If successful, the Midwest will significantly advance America’s engagement with the world and offer a model to the rest of the world for a solution to the impending climate-based global migration crisis.