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<h1>Can the Stuck-in-Place Economy Help Us Face Climate Change?</h1>

<div><div><div><p></p>  <p>After I finished high school in the flat, square corn country of central Illinois, I fled&mdash;along with many of my fellow classmates. We chased jobs or     graduate school in places like San Francisco, New York, or Washington, D.C. I settled in Seattle. It wasn't until I hit my 30s that I became aware of the     social costs of this mobility.</p>  <blockquote>Sense of place, community, and rootedness aren't just poetic ideas. They are survival mechanisms.</blockquote>  <p>It's about more than mere hand-wringing over the ton of carbon I am dumping into the atmosphere this Christmas as I fly east or the psychic toll of     separation from my parents, my brother, and my four-year-old niece. I am somehow ungrounded. I have limited history in this gray and watery city: Even     after 10 years I don't have the same sense of belonging as people who grew up here, and that sometimes feels disquieting.</p>  <p>According to recent environmental research, this could also mean that I am less equipped to cope&mdash;if, say, an emergency strikes&mdash;than someone who's better     connected to Seattle. Sense of place, community, and rootedness aren't just poetic ideas. They are survival mechanisms.</p>  <p>Social scientists call it "place attachment": "the bonding that occurs between individuals and their meaningful environments," according to    <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494409000620">psychologists Leila Scannell and Robert Gifford</a>. Based on several studies     released in the last couple of years, place attachment is one of several factors that can help a community recover from, and individuals cope with, the     kinds of social and environmental crises that are becoming ever more common&mdash;like climate change-related disasters, large-scale job layoffs, or political     turmoil.</p>  <p>In <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204612000989">two</a> <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027249440900098X">separate</a> studies, for instance, individuals who reported higher levels of     concern about place were more likely to take steps to prepare for wildfires (in the United States) or floods (in a monsoon-prone region of India). The     damage caused by a disaster can be more stressful for individuals who were attached to that place, but those feelings can also motivate people to put the     broken place back together, according to     <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=yxX6S6mg09AC&amp;pg=PA169&amp;dq=zakour+gillespie+community+disaster+vulnerability&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=l_u0UvbmJ5bYoATn94CgBw&amp;ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false"> a recent book </a> by social workers Michael John Zakour and David F. Gillespie.</p>  <p>These findings don't bode well for many Americans, who have never been good at putting down roots. According to the <i>Economist</i>, people in the     United States move twice as often as Canadians. "Americans always on the move developed no attachments to place and thus no sense of historical connection     with the land," wrote historian David Glassberg in the book <i>Sense of History</i>. Cultural historian William R. Leach blamed, in part, the globalized     economy, which has created a "vast landscape of the temporary &hellip; with thousands of floating executives and countless numbers of part-time and temporary     workers, all unable or unwilling to make long-term connections to their communities."</p>  <p align="center"><b>Like what you're reading? YES! is nonprofit and relies on reader support.<a href="https://store.yesmagazine.org/donate/?ica=Don_txt_SupportUs&amp;icl=Content"><br> Click here to chip in $5 or more</a> to help us keep the inspiration coming.</b></p>  <p>Some of the factors that lead us to move are self-reinforcing: The more frequently young professionals depart the struggling Rust Belt cities and farm     towns of the Midwest, the less capacity is left in those places to build new kinds of economies that would entice workers to stay. However, the highest     number of moves happens below the poverty line, among people whose lives, relationships, and finances are rarely stable: Those moves exact different social     costs, <a href="http://ruralstudies.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/pub/pdf/SchoolResidentialMobilityPoorChildren.pdf">as kids from poor families</a> bounce from one school to another and miss out on forming relationships in one neighborhood.</p>  <p>But in the last couple of years, Americans have begun to change their itinerant ways.    <a href="http://www.census.gov/hhes/migration/data/cps/historical/Figure%20A-1.1.png">Since the mid-1980s</a>, an ever-smaller percentage of people are changing locations. The number of Americans who relocated hit an    <a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/mobility_of_the_population/cb11-193.html">all-time low in 2011</a>, though relocation went up     slightly the following year. More significantly, today's 20-somethings (historically one of the most mobile age brackets)     <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-census-mobility-among-young-adults-at-50-year-low-one-in-five-neither-working-nor-in-school/5358625"> are less often moving out </a> of the family house. A record number of those under the age of 31 still live with their parents,    <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/08/01/a-rising-share-of-young-adults-live-in-their-parents-home/">says a report from Pew Research</a>.</p>  <blockquote>some communities might endure precisely because people have dug in, rooted themselves</blockquote>  <p>The fact that Americans are now more geographically anchored may or may not be a positive sign for the economy in the traditional sense. The still-slumped     housing market might be keeping some of us glued to one place, and the Brookings Institution's William Frey calls the increasing tendency to be stationary     a "foreboding trend for national economic recovery." But of course, that depends on what kind of economy we are trying to create.</p>  <p>And some of the unintended consequences of staying put may be positive. More than 80 percent of people living in multigenerational households (such as ones where young adults stay with parents and grandparents) say    <a href="http://www.gu.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=QWOTaluHxPk=&amp;mid..">the situation has "enhanced &hellip; relationships among family members."</a></p>  <p>To stay put requires that you keep your relationship to one place, whether by default or choice. It can mean restitching the social fabric of families. It     can mean forgetting any shame associated with lingering in or contributing to the town you grew up in.</p>  <p>This is not to say that Americans will soon stop traveling over the holidays. (Or that I'll ever be able to settle my whole family in one location&mdash;in just     a few years, my mother's household has moved from New England to the Plains and back to the central Midwest, and my husband's brother, from the Midwest to     South America to Kentucky.)</p>  <p>The most foreboding trends now and in the decades ahead may stem from climate change&mdash;disasters like drought and     flooding that devastate some places and force people to move. As we face this kind of world, some communities might endure precisely because people have dug in, rooted themselves, and developed the kinds of     generosity, adaptiveness, and foresight that come from knowing where they are.</p>  <hr style="width: 50%;" width="50%"><p><b> </b></p>  <ul><b> </b>  <li><b></b></li>  <b> </b><b> </b>  <li>  </li><li><b><br></b></li>  </ul></div><!-- <img src="6a71be9055054544a2da3af12f92d692"> --></div><!-- <p><img alt="Madeline Ostrander." src="http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/adapting-to-climate-change-it-s-not-about-giving-up-it-s-about-getting-real/Madelineostrander75.jpg" title="Madeline Ostrander.">Madeline Ostrander wrote this article for <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/">YES! Magazine</a>,   a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas  with  practical actions. Madeline is a freelance writer and editor who  focuses on issues of climate change and climate adaptation.</p> --></div><!-- <p><b>Read More:</b></p>&#13;  --><!-- <a href="resolveuid/d40e1abb0e1046cdb86cae8a69209e01">Joining a Rural Community: Why It Takes Years to Be Accepted </a> --><!-- <a href="resolveuid/63d35514d650416280b09e830ecd2ecc"><b>Adapting to Climate Change: It's Not About Giving Up, It's About Getting Real </b></a> --><!-- <a href="resolveuid/e824b9a141918cc295c03a8ae156dcdb">In U.S. Transition Towns, the Big Challenge is Bringing People Together </a> -->

<p>This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org">Yes! Magazine</a> at <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2013/12/31/why-moving-less-means-easier-climate-adaptation-and-less-holiday-flying">https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2013/12/31/why-moving-less-means-easier-climate-adaptation-and-less-holiday-flying</a>.</p><link href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2013/12/31/why-moving-less-means-easier-climate-adaptation-and-less-holiday-flying" rel="canonical"/><p>Yes! Magazine is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of ... . Learn more at <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org">Yes! Magazine</a></p><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://www.yesmagazine.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=13163&ga4=G-74QJNNY44Z" style="width:1px;height:1px;">

Can the Stuck-in-Place Economy Help Us Face Climate Change?

After I finished high school in the flat, square corn country of central Illinois, I fled—along with many of my fellow classmates. We chased jobs or     graduate school in places like San Francisco, New York, or Washington, D.C. I settled in Seattle. It wasn't until I hit my 30s that I became aware of the     social costs of this mobility.  Sense of place, community, and rootedness aren't just poetic ideas. They are survival mechanisms.  It's about more than mere hand-wringing over the ton of carbon I am dumping into the atmosphere this Christmas as I fly east or the psychic toll of     separation from my parents, my brother, and my four-year-old niece. I am somehow ungrounded. I have limited history in this gray and watery city: Even     after 10 years I don't have the same sense of belonging as people who grew up here, and that sometimes feels disquieting.  According to recent environmental research, this could also mean that I am less equipped to cope—if, say, an emergency strikes—than someone who's better     connected to Seattle. Sense of place, community, and rootedness aren't just poetic ideas. They are survival mechanisms.  Social scientists call it "place attachment": "the bonding that occurs between individuals and their meaningful environments," according to    psychologists Leila Scannell and Robert Gifford. Based on several studies     released in the last couple of years, place attachment is one of several factors that can help a community recover from, and individuals cope with, the     kinds of social and environmental crises that are becoming ever more common—like climate change-related disasters, large-scale job layoffs, or political     turmoil.  In two separate studies, for instance, individuals who reported higher levels of     concern about place were more likely to take steps to prepare for wildfires (in the United States) or floods (in a monsoon-prone region of India). The     damage caused by a disaster can be more stressful for individuals who were attached to that place, but those feelings can also motivate people to put the     broken place back together, according to      a recent book  by social workers Michael John Zakour and David F. Gillespie.  These findings don't bode well for many Americans, who have never been good at putting down roots. According to the Economist, people in the     United States move twice as often as Canadians. "Americans always on the move developed no attachments to place and thus no sense of historical connection     with the land," wrote historian David Glassberg in the book Sense of History. Cultural historian William R. Leach blamed, in part, the globalized     economy, which has created a "vast landscape of the temporary … with thousands of floating executives and countless numbers of part-time and temporary     workers, all unable or unwilling to make long-term connections to their communities."  Like what you're reading? YES! is nonprofit and relies on reader support. Click here to chip in $5 or more to help us keep the inspiration coming.  Some of the factors that lead us to move are self-reinforcing: The more frequently young professionals depart the struggling Rust Belt cities and farm     towns of the Midwest, the less capacity is left in those places to build new kinds of economies that would entice workers to stay. However, the highest     number of moves happens below the poverty line, among people whose lives, relationships, and finances are rarely stable: Those moves exact different social     costs, as kids from poor families bounce from one school to another and miss out on forming relationships in one neighborhood.  But in the last couple of years, Americans have begun to change their itinerant ways.    Since the mid-1980s, an ever-smaller percentage of people are changing locations. The number of Americans who relocated hit an    all-time low in 2011, though relocation went up     slightly the following year. More significantly, today's 20-somethings (historically one of the most mobile age brackets)      are less often moving out  of the family house. A record number of those under the age of 31 still live with their parents,    says a report from Pew Research.  some communities might endure precisely because people have dug in, rooted themselves  The fact that Americans are now more geographically anchored may or may not be a positive sign for the economy in the traditional sense. The still-slumped     housing market might be keeping some of us glued to one place, and the Brookings Institution's William Frey calls the increasing tendency to be stationary     a "foreboding trend for national economic recovery." But of course, that depends on what kind of economy we are trying to create.  And some of the unintended consequences of staying put may be positive. More than 80 percent of people living in multigenerational households (such as ones where young adults stay with parents and grandparents) say    the situation has "enhanced … relationships among family members."  To stay put requires that you keep your relationship to one place, whether by default or choice. It can mean restitching the social fabric of families. It     can mean forgetting any shame associated with lingering in or contributing to the town you grew up in.  This is not to say that Americans will soon stop traveling over the holidays. (Or that I'll ever be able to settle my whole family in one location—in just     a few years, my mother's household has moved from New England to the Plains and back to the central Midwest, and my husband's brother, from the Midwest to     South America to Kentucky.)  The most foreboding trends now and in the decades ahead may stem from climate change—disasters like drought and     flooding that devastate some places and force people to move. As we face this kind of world, some communities might endure precisely because people have dug in, rooted themselves, and developed the kinds of     generosity, adaptiveness, and foresight that come from knowing where they are.

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