What Migrants Displaced By The Dust Bowl And Climate Events Can Teach Us

October 20, 2018btollesonRSS Sample

In this November 1936 photo from the U.S. Farm Security Administration, a mother, originally from Oklahoma stands with her five children near Fresno, Calif., where she works as a cotton picker. The Dust Bowl led to a massive migration of Midwestern farmers out of the region, many of whom traveled to California in search of jobs.

The World Bank predicts climate change may displace 143 million people by 2050. Environmental shifts have caused migration on smaller scales throughout the history of North America, historians say.

(Image credit: Dorothea Lange/AP)