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Climate Change and Human Mobilities

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Handbook of Philosophy of Climate Change

Part of the book series: Handbooks in Philosophy ((HP))

Abstract

Human migration has long been a type of adaptive response to climatic conditions and environmental pressures. However, anthropogenic climate change threatens to exacerbate vulnerabilities and impact adaptive capacity. Climate change impacts human mobility by way of long-term climate processes as well as sudden events whose intensity and frequency are exacerbated. Climate-related mobilities include the range of outcomes that result from climate change’s impacts on human mobility. The effects of climate change on human mobility are diverse. They include various types of movement, including movement within borders as well as external or cross-border movement. Such mobility outcomes also include various degrees of agency in whether people can choose to move. Furthermore, climate change can impact whether humans will move more or will move less. Instances of immobility also vary with regards to agency in decision making, with some populations choosing to stay in vulnerable locations while others may be “trapped.” Vulnerability and adaptive capacity under conditions of climate change depends on the interaction of climate impacts with political social, cultural, economic, and additional factors. The heterogeneity of climate-related mobility outcomes and the difficulty in determining the scale and scope of the impact on human well-being raises a number of practical and normative challenges. The chapter examines and compares a range of normative frameworks that address the moral problem of climate change’s impacts on human mobility. These approaches articulate the nature of the moral problem, identify the rights that are violated and the associated harms of displacement, and identify correlative obligations to those who are vulnerable to climate-related impacts. The chapter concludes by suggesting further directions normative theorizing about climate-related mobilities can take considering the complex challenges the phenomena poses for the international state system.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Simona Capisani

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  1. Simona Capisani
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Correspondence to Simona Capisani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Guido Carli Free International University, ROMA, Roma, Italy

    Gianfranco Pellegrino

  2. Department of Political Science, Guido Carli Free University, Rome, Italy

    Marcello Di Paola

Section Editor information

  1. Loyola University Chicago JFRC, Rome, Italy

    Marcello Di Paola

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Capisani, S. (2023). Climate Change and Human Mobilities. In: Pellegrino, G., Di Paola, M. (eds) Handbook of Philosophy of Climate Change. Handbooks in Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16960-2_124-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16960-2_124-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16960-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16960-2

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