Nomad Century
How to Survive the Climate Upheaval
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Nomad Century
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Narrated by:
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Gaia Vince
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By:
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Gaia Vince
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
A tremendous upheaval is coming this century: with every degree of temperature increase, roughly a billion people will be pushed outside the zone in which humans have lived for thousands of years. While we can and should do everything we can to mitigate the impact of climate change, the brutal truth is that huge swathes of the world are becoming uninhabitable. From Bangladesh to Sudan to the southern and western United States, and in cities from Cardiff to New Orleans to Shanghai, the quadruple threat of drought, heat, wildfires and flooding will uproot billions of people. Mass migration will remake the world in the 21st century, either by accident, or design—and as Royal Society Science Prize-winning science journalist Gaia Vince shows us, far better the latter.
In this galvanising and persuasive call to arms, Vince demonstrates how we can manage the coming climate migration. But the vital counter-intuitive message of this book is that migration is not the problem—it's the solution. Not only will billions of people have no choice but to relocate, but advanced countries are facing demographic crises due to shrinking, ageing populations and the resulting labour shortages. Drawing on a wealth of eye-opening data, Vince describes how migration demonstrably brings tremendous benefits not only to migrants themselves, but to host countries, who benefit economically as well as culturally. A borderless world is not something to fear: in fact, a World Bank study suggested that it would triple global GDP. As Vince shows us, we will increasingly be moving north, into the Arctic circle, and to countries like Canada, Greenland and Russia that will only benefit from rising temperatures and increased populations.
While the planetary emergency of climate change is finally getting the attention it deserves, the inevitability of mass migration has been largely ignored. In Nomad Century, Vince provides, for the first time, an examination of the most pressing question facing humanity.
©2022 Gaia Vince (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A tour de force... Nomad Century should be on the reading list of anyone and everyone in any position of power. It is not simply a future atlas of human geography showing where will be habitable and for how many, but a hard-hitting must-read on how we will need to live in the coming decades to secure the long-term survival of humankind." (Anjana Ahuja)
"Essential, bold and clear-sighted... I have yet to read a book that takes the question of how to survive the coming decades more seriously." (David Farrier)
What listeners say about Nomad Century
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 24-09-23
An important book with brilliant solutions
Gaia Vince has written am important book in which it is proposed that since we as a species are failing to combat climate change we must prepare to do what comes natural to us: migrate. Nomad century describes how billions will be forced to move and how we can use this to create more resilient societies that become stronger due to migration not despite it.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Isobel Birkinshaw
- 31-08-24
Like getting punched in the face by facts
Depressing but true. Heavy on the facts can be a bit bleak. Well read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 05-03-24
The author’s optimism
Gaia knows her subject but like so many others when it comes to solutions she says nothing that has not been said many times before by other well meaning writers, scientists and others.Her emphasis of course is on migration viewing it as a positive overall something not shared by many in the U.K.,Ireland, Croatia and those US states on the Mexican border to name but a few.
When Gaia suggests that “we” should welcome migrants and seek to resolve the climate issues that are causing so many to flee their mainly drought ridden homelands she does not define who she encompasses within that subject pronoun.Just how are we get Russia,Saudi Arabia, China and numerous other countries with severe climate, demographic and other problems of their own to co operate , assuming the likes of Mr Putin would want to, with “us” by taking more migrants ( do they want to go to those countries where freedom is in short supply ?).It seems she is saying that the free world as we know it should open its arms to migrants even if other more regimented societies do not.
Gaia is well meaning but regretfully in a world of opposing political systems and enormous inequality within and between nation states it is doubtful anyone who matters will heed her call- regretfully.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Goldfinch
- 21-01-23
Excellent and positive overview of the challenges
It would be easy to dismiss this book as overly utopian but that would be lazy and wrong. There is no doubt we face massive climate change related challenges as a specie, anyone who tells you otherwise is motivated by libertarian ideology or/and short term financial gain.
In her book Gaia explains the issues we face clearly and calmly, outlines possible solutions and sets out a case for urgent and radical action on a range of fronts. As she says, one of the key issues is whether we act now or wait for massive, unprecedented disasters to kill millions and drastically reduce the quality of life for many more. Her media skills and experience also make her an excellent reader.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- I. Cable
- 04-01-23
essential discussion on migration and climate
Having listened to Gaia being interviewed on many podcasts about her book I thought this book would be solely a out population and migration. That is why I bought the book and its what I feel needs discussing more than almost any subject in the climate space as it will succeed of fail based on how well people understand the need for free movement around the world for climate adaptation and future prosperity. However, Gaia has also done one of the most comprehensive dives into just about all the other climate solutions we need to think about.
If you are interested in imagining a better future you have to read this. I have been buried in the climate world for well over a decade now and this is an excellent and current appraisal of where we are now, what our options are and also what we need to do to successfully address climate. Read it for that, but read it more for the discussion on population and migration.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- p
- 10-09-22
Too altruistic
Gaia says that migration is our natural survival instinct and does briefly mention how ancient migrations almost or totally replaced males but doesn’t go into details of what horrors that must have entailed. And then she discuss how we haven’t reduced carbon output despite knowing the consequences for decades but assumed the northern hemisphere would accept and welcome billions of migrants. She could at least have devoted more time to give the alternative scenario of how life would be in the north if we didn’t allow mass migration. Like zero carbon, it’s a nice idea but humans are too selfish to allow it until there is no other option
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Chris Buston
- 14-12-24
Avoid
A poorly researched, poorly written and a poorly read book. I have resolved never to buy a book on the basis of a Guardian review of a Guardian writer ever again.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- dcl
- 28-08-23
Pro Migration Propaganda
Good reading voice.
However blinkered over politicised content, not really about nomadism - it’s about migration and the author really isn’t shy about how wonderful she thinks it is.
It’s hard to understand how someone has been so over-educated as to become completely blind to any nuance of the human condition not captured by homo-economicus.
There is certainly a lot to be said for the benefits of open migration, but here you will find no acknowledgement of the costs.
Blind youthful idealism keeps us all charging into the future.
I am interested by one point she made about the structure of social networks in cities, food for thought will have to look into that more.
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