PALENQUE, CHIAPAS, MEXICO – AUGUST 28, 2019: Climate Migrant, Juan Francisco Murcia Serrano, (in black cowboy hat) from Olancho, Honduras, studies a map at a shelter in Palenque of the northbound train routes and migrant shelter network through Mexico, planning his trip north in search of work. In Honduras, Mr. Murcia Serrano grew maize for a living, but climate change related drought decimated his crops and his ability to provide for his family. “I left because the maize harvest was all dried up…that’s why I decided to come here, to look for work in Mexico” he said. New models show that the more severe the climatic change, the larger number of migrants will take flight. If little is done to alter the current course of action, the United States can expect some 50 million additional migrants from Central America alone over the next 30 years, at least 10 million of them for reasons due to their changing climate alone, making last year’s migrant crisis at the U.S. border the new norm; If the U.S. and Mexico continue to restrict crossings, the populations of Central American countries will surge, their people nosediving into deeper poverty and famine, with enormous, life-or-death stakes. PHOTO: Meridith Kohut for The New York Times Magazine
