Migration, survival and politics

Camille Parmesan’s 1996 paper “Climate and Species’ Range” in Nature catalogued the migration patterns of Edith’s Checkerspot Butterfly, which used to be considered a sedentary species. It showed a startling migration pattern as a response to environmental change. Since then, scientists have documented migrations of over 4,000 species, ranging from polar bears to coral reefs and tamarind trees.

There is a biological imperative to move when the environment turns hostile. This book extrapolates from that to human migrations, from the trek out of Africa some 60,000 year ago to the present day. Migration is occurring on a massive scale in