"Nomad Century"
Or "The Holidays Are Here. Buy This Book for Everyone You Know"
“Are you seriously talking about a different book at your book launch?”
Yeah, seriously. It’s likely not something my agent and publicist would recommend, but I had to bring up my new favorite the other day in front of my captive audience. I even purchased two additional copies of the thing at the bookstore (Gibson’s in Concord, NH) that hosted my launch.
The book’s title is Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World. The author is Gaia Vince. The hardcover came out in 2022, but the paperback emerged a year later, just in time for me to find it at Ballast Books in Bremerton, Wash. when I was on that side of the country for a wedding. It’s nonfiction.
The predictions this well-researched book makes are dire. Billions-with-a-B climate-change refugees by 2050. Billions more by century’s end. Rising temperatures that maybe-could-be-probably-won’t be caught in time. Shortages. Starvation. Heatstroke. Death.
It gave me hope. We have always survived by moving to safer harbors, the book says. This time will be no different. And if we’re smart about it, we might do more than survive. We might thrive. If we’re really clever, it might only be a temporary retreat until the world heals.
New cities in the north. Global citizenship. A UN migration plan with teeth. A recognition that bodies, minds, and labor are our most important resource. A plan grander than any plan we’ve ever made. A plan for the entire planet. Vince makes it all sound possible, and I sorely need that.
I have three copies of Nomad Century now -- one for me, two to pass on. One will go to a pal, a leader type who might be interested. The other I think I’ll send to the next governor of our state (or at least to the woman I hope will get the job). All my elected reps should get one. All yours, too.
One for Biden.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that everyone read this book.
And then act on it.
NEWS: I had a novel come out recently. It’s called Earth Retrograde, and people seem to be liking it.
Yes, this book describes what no one hears.