Climate migration needs personal stories

The text examines the link between climate change and mass migration from Central America's Northern Triangle to the U.S., highlighting how droughts and crop failures drive food insecurity and displacement. It asserts that personal narratives are more effective than data alone in shifting public perception and overcoming climate skepticism. The author calls for the U.S. government to integrate climate change into national security and immigration policies and urges communicators to use human-centric storytelling to justify international climate funding and compassionate treatment of migrants.

• Climate change in Central America is characterized by increased heat, dryness, and intensified floods and tropical storms, which have led to severe food insecurity. In Honduras, a 2018 drought likely destroyed more than 80% of bean and maize crops.
• There was a massive increase in families from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras seeking asylum in the U.S., rising from fewer than 2,000 in 2012 to nearly 375,000 in 2019. In 2019, families and unaccompanied children from these three nations constituted 80% of migrants reaching the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Personal stories are a powerful communication tool that can trigger worry and compassion, potentially persuading climate skeptics that climate change is currently impacting people and ecosystems.
• The Trump Administration's approach to migration included removing climate change from national security priorities, cutting climate adaptation and agricultural training funds for Central America, and implementing 'zero-tolerance' policies that separated parents and children.
• The Biden administration has signaled a shift by appointing a U.S. Climate Envoy and pledging $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, a mechanism designed to mitigate climate impacts that displace people in developing nations.

APA

Fernandez, L. (2021). Climate migration needs personal stories. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/news-events/climate-migration-needs-personal-stories/

Chicago

Fernandez, Lisa. Climate migration needs personal stories. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 2021. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/news-events/climate-migration-needs-personal-stories/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Fernandez |first1=Lisa |title=Climate migration needs personal stories |publisher=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |date=5 January 2021 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/news-events/climate-migration-needs-personal-stories/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{fernandez2021climate, author = {Fernandez, Lisa}, title = {{Climate migration needs personal stories}}, publisher = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/news-events/climate-migration-needs-personal-stories/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }