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2010

Searchinger, Timothy et al. “Carbon Calculations to Consider—Response.” Science vol 327.issue 5967 (2010): pp.781. Print.
Searchinger, Tim et al. “Bioenergy: Counting on Incentives—Response.” Science vol 327.issue 5970 (2010): pp.1200–1201. Print.
Feng, Shuaizhang, Alan Krueger, and Michael Oppenheimer. “Linkages Among Climate Change, Crop Yields and Mexico–US Cross-Border Migration.” PNAS Vol.107 (2010): pp. 14257–14262. Print.
 

Climate change is expected to cause mass human migration, including immigration across international borders. This study quantitatively examines the linkages among variations in climate, agricultural yields, and people's migration responses by using an instrumental variables approach. Our method allows us to identify the relationship between crop yields and migration without explicitly controlling for all other confounding factors. Using state-level data from Mexico, we find a significant effect of climate-driven changes in crop yields on the rate of emigration to the United States. The estimated semielasticity of emigration with respect to crop yields is approximately −0.2, i.e., a 10% reduction in crop yields would lead an additional 2% of the population to emigrate. We then use the estimated semielasticity to explore the potential magnitude of future emigration. Depending on the warming scenarios used and adaptation levels assumed, with other factors held constant, by approximately the year 2080, climate change is estimated to induce 1.4 to 6.7 million adult Mexicans (or 2% to 10% of the current population aged 15–65 y) to emigrate as a result of declines in agricultural productivity alone. Although the results cannot be mechanically extrapolated to other areas and time periods, our findings are significant from a global perspective given that many regions, especially developing countries, are expected to experience significant declines in agricultural yields as a result of projected warming.

1990

Oppenheimer, Michael, and R. H. Boyle. Dead Heat: The Race Against The Greenhouse Effect. New York: Basic Books, 1990.

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Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment
Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
313 Robertson Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
[email protected]

Assistant: Charles Crosby
[email protected]