Climate change affects more than just hurricanes and floods, and we must calculate the cost of human lives and their very existence.

Climate change is clear in videos and photos. It is not contained to one area of the world and is now a worldwide menace to everything human or growing on Earth. To refuse to recognize this is immoral, unjust, and cruel. The next question we must ask is: What happens to the people in those areas?

For those who have the means, rebuilding and resurrecting their wrecked and flooded communities will be a tiring but possible task. How many have the resources and ability to rebuild their lives after a disaster? While some view it as an imposition, not all understand the future impact.

The destruction, not only in physical structures but also in psychological impediments, is massive and cannot be calculated in money. It will determine the extent of many people's livelihoods and longevity. If they did not die in these catastrophic events, they will struggle and perhaps be forgotten as others rebuilt. Too many will believe that it's someone else's responsibility and depend on overstretched charities to take up the slack; is that reasonable?

But there is one overriding social change that will determine the character of many areas of the country that had enjoyed stability and closeness in the past. Climate wreckage will shift migration patterns to safer areas. But will there be any safety anywhere when we know that climate change affects rainfall, changes the weather patterns over the US, and creates forest fires and tornadoes that have never been experienced before? Safety now becomes the central question, but where is the solution?

In this new era of climate migration, there are groups that will struggle the most and may experience the harshest consequences as they attempt to find housing, food, and a community willing to accept them. These groups will bring along factors with which many communities have not had to contend, and they are unprepared to provide for them as they need. What are the groups?

Groups Left Behind

Similar changes, as had happened in the past and job opportunities provided higher income incomes, will occur due to climate change's impacts on wildfires, floods, tornadoes, and economies. Historically, people with economic means have always relegated the poor to the least desirable areas, limiting their freedom of movement. But now, it won't only be the poor, but the elderly and those with mental or mobility issues who depend on the services of cities to assist them in their everyday lives.

Will community groups, such as charities that provide free meals, and transportation to medical appointments, continue to be available in an area that is not receiving real estate income? Will there be medical facilities and will they receive funding from corporate chains that are more than ever concerned with their bottom lines?

The questions don't need to be asked because we can almost predict what will happen. The abandoned will try to continue, and the loneliness, a current epidemic, according to the surgeon general, will overwhelm those left behind. How can we abandon those who are our least capable or on whose shoulders we climbed to be where we are today?

Preparation may have been missing as climate change became full force, the energy of migration and, accordingly, separation into new groups. Worsening wildfires have become an annual summer tradition in California, bringing with them a climate of fear and destruction. Many Americans had already been relocated by the pandemic, and the pattern’s pessimism has become evident. Moving appears less like a faraway possibility and more like a decision with a deadline.

We can no longer rely on consistent seasonal changes and temperatures for future preparations. If we cannot predict, how can we prepare?

In 2020, over 3 million people abandoned their homes due to climate change. By 2053, it is predicted that that number will swell to 7.5 million in this new climate-change migration. What did they leave behind for those who couldn't migrate, and what will there be in the future, if not less and in worse condition than before? Is this too cynical? I don't think so.

When we think of climate change, our first inclination is housing, our second is the food supply and the economy, and our third is the lifestyles people will enjoy or cease to enjoy in the future. Where is the consideration for the disabled, the poor, and the elderly?

I question who is making these plans and what they envision in terms of these three groups. Every citizen in the United States should ask themselves and their representatives this question. Remember, it will affect every single one of us in one way or another.

Our families will age, illness will strike as climate change causes a new surge in disease-carrying insects, and diseases will have to be conquered—no one is safe, and there is no safe place unless we come to a new realization of our duty to our fellow man and the planet.

New climate change maps are now being constructed, and we can clearly see which areas of the country are being affected by the rise in water on the coasts and the Great Lakes, as well as temperatures in the triple digits becoming a norm rather than an anomaly. What about housing costs and availability? How will the population arrange itself in terms of this new knowledge?

And what will it bring in terms of the political climate that we will face in the future? When resources are stretched or unavailable, the certainty of tension builds until it can no longer be contained. We are like the crew on the initial expeditions into the Arctic, where they were isolated and no longer could escape. What happened to Shackleton and his men? It is gruesome, and that's not where we want to be.

Climate change cannot be denied and to do so is like an ostrich, putting its head in the sand, only we may attribute nefarious goals to this type of myth-making and truth denial. The deniers will kill millions and for that there is no redemption. Prayers and thoughts are insufficient after the fact when funerals line the streets and death is in the waterways of the country. We do not need babies or pets in trees to be retrieved. The time is now and there is no time to wait.