I read this a lot of conflicting emotions. On the one hand, I couldn’t agree more. A small % of us should take the opportunity as it’s only logical.
On the other hand, I shake my head at the irony of a US citizen (the worlds largest emitter and leading blocker of climate reform) being able to afford a climate nomad life while millions of people in my country (India) will be climate refugees for no fault of theirs. The only consolation I take is that it couldn’t happen to a nicer set of guys. So there’s that, and I shake my head and wish well.
That is 100% fair, and in hindsight, I wish I'd included an acknowledgment of that irony. I hang my head in shame that so many in America -- but most especially Republicans -- either deny or block all attempts to stop climate change.
I was anyways pretty sure it was on your mind, even if you didn’t pen it down. You don’t need to feel ashamed; we can only take responsibility for what is in our circle of control.
B/c I'm nuts I watched a YouTube clip of the candidate for EPA secretary hearings yesterday. He didn't even know that we were at 1.5C threshold now. Great article, so inclusive you guys. We've had our share too of natural disasters. Mostly earthquakes (which probably are NOT climate impacted but who knows) and hurricanes, which Are coming more fast and furiously of late. And those ARE climate related. Even the sargasso (have you seen it on MX Carib coast? Ugly smelly seaweed that has invaded the once beautiful beaches, think it goes up to FL too.).They say it's increase (and where it formerly stationed itself, in middle of Atlantic) is bc of warming oceans. So really, there's probably no TRULY safe place to 'rest.' And then there's non-climate disasters like the Aceh Tsunami, 2004, and volcanoes- Popo in MX though thankfully has not gone off lately. But Mt. St. Helens, who would've thunk it? (maybe the geologists-volcanologists). But probably all this is not a bad reason to NOT buy real estate. Insurance premiums are through the roof and will continue no doubt. So weird about Valencia! That flood came from nowhere. I dunno. But always good to get the word out there, kudos on that.
It truly doesn't seem fair to me to compare a poor, formerly colonized country like India that has only more recently industrialized (and is still, per capita, producing dramaticallyfra less greenhouse gas) to the West, which has grown extremely wealthy after 100+ years of extremely high emissions. It's comparing apples and oranges and ignoring very basic fairness.
You are right that India is 3rd largest in absolute terms. One also likes to look at some other metrics:
1. per capita: India averages 1.89 mtpc, global average is 4.7, US is 14.7z India is home to 17% of the world's population, but its share of global carbon emissions is less than 5%.
In contrast, the per capita emissions of the combined 17% population in developed countries account for 60% of global emissions
2. Historical emissions: even though US emissions account for 29 percent of the world’s total since the mid-1800s, I put this down to the natural path human development and technology of the times combined. It’s practical, but irrelevant for future purposes.
I certainly hope we in India can find a better way to develop (solar or nuclear power eg) so we don’t make the same mistakes developed countries made. If we do reach energy consumption per capita of US using carbon fuels, it will be curtains for us and for the rest of the world. We will definitely deserve that, when it happens.
Circling back to the topic of the nomadic life, I happen to be among the privileged top 1% that can maybe possibly afford to live anywhere. It’s a very logical choice if one can afford it. But the 99% cannot and that will impact the 1%. I am very alive to the ironies within India itself.
I’m so glad you wrote this. It’s such an important point. Climate change is coming on so rapidly. I’ve been thinking of buying a little winter place in France and in this respect, climate change wasn’t even on my radar two years ago. Now we’re debating whether we’d rather deal with raging wildfire or devastating water scarcity. I think we’ll just rent.
I have 3 sons in their 40s who cannot become nomads but I think they will find your letter interesting. I hope they will subscribe to your blog. You always write something worthwhile. I do worry about what is going to happen in this country. The next 4 years will not be good nor we as Americans will be proud of. America is not the country I grew up believing it to be. 😢
Thank you, Betty. The kind words are very much appreciated. And boy does your comment "America is not the country I grew up believing it to be" resonate with me. I feel that very very much.
You are saying that you sold all your real estate and have now a regular revenue stream to finance your nomadic lifestyle. Would you share any info about how you structured your revenue stream? Thanks.
We have a financial advisor who has invested our money in a variety of stock funds, bonds, and other financial instruments. Honestly, it's fairly simple, though we leave the decisions as to where to put the money up to him.
I think about this, probably more than is healthy. We own a little flat in Amsterdam, where paranoia about flooding is baked into the national consciousness (and for good reason, of course! Half this country was wrested from the sea, and it's a constant battle, because the sea wanted it back even before human-caused sea rise). The Dutch shrug, and say they'll build the dikes higher, but I'm not sure up till what point we can keep engineering ourselves out of catastrophe. Last year we bought a little Medieval house in Umbria, with meter-thick stone walls, and that's where we want to end up. Such places are built to withstand the heat of a long Italian summer. But I worry about the fact that there were weeks and weeks of heat advisories there last year--much more than usual. I look up the health of the water tables, I consult the earthquake maps, I wonder if wildfires in Umbria will ever get as bad as California. I look up the air quality, and unconsciously take a deeper breath.
I try to remember that worry is the luxury of those of us who have options. Even though remembering that doesn't really help me or anyone else. I feel guilty about worrying over my future when I'm one of the lucky ones with the ability to move, at least to an extent. In the face of something as all-encompassing as the climate crisis, I guess it's human nature to try to find safety for ourselves and the ones we love, to hedge our bets if we are able, to do our best to predict and control at least our own futures when the future of the planet feels so uncertain.
Those thick Italian walls are like the thick walls here in Mexico! As for worrying being a luxury, sure, but we all have to live our lives and you should be absolutely free to worry about -- and plan for -- your future. For me the key is trying to be a responsible citizen at the same time. But it's complicated and messy, and I don't have any great answers.
Lot's to ponder. Thanks for covering the topic. I wonder the carbon footprint of a nomad versus someone who stays in one place most of the year. Hard to quantify, but something to consider when weighing pros and cons.
Like with comparing the footprint of two different people who stay put, I think there is a wide variation with nomads. I know some who fly a horrifying amount, as well as those who rarely fly at all. I'm quite confident that our is definitely less than had we remained in Seattle.
Hey Michael, thanks for writing this! Great to hear your perspective as a nomad.
We've done the nomad life (3 years) and also the home/travel a lot life. We're leaning toward slomading again in the next couple of years as part of a shift out of a region (Central Oregon) that gets a ton of wildfire smoke.
We want to find a home base in the future (US or Europe), but are struggling with the same thing you are: every place has tradeoffs and risk! How the heck do you choose?
One consideration: when you're a nomad, you have fewer tools to deal with disasters and are more exposed if you happen to be somewhere when they hit. If it's smoky, you don't have a house with filters or you have to drive from Oregon to freaking Chicago to get away from it; if there's a heat wave, maybe you're in a country where the power cuts out and AC doesn't work (or wasn't available to start with). We've had nomad friends forced to flee for their lives in their trailer because of tornadoes when they could have stayed in their basements in a house. (But then deal with that wreckage, gah.)
No easy solutions here, just tradeoffs, right?
BTW, here's an interesting take from a climate journalist is that these can't even be called disasters anymore because they're basically expected! https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/the-last-disaster (His Substack has totally transformed how I think about climate migration and preparedness.)
To Kartik's point: if you're over 30, over 50% of CO2 emissions have occurred in your lifetime. Gulp.
That statistic about being over 30 makes me furious because this all could've been stopped! The answer was right there in front of us! And you're right about the trade-offs, but all of the nomad minuses pale for me in comparison to losing my home.
I sold my house in CA 5 years ago and would not buy there again now, due to fire risk everywhere. Like you, I use that money to travel much of the year, although I’m not 100% a nomad yet. I think this way of reactive living is sensible.
Seattle once had rainy summers and snowy winters. It's crazy how that is no longer.
And, years ago, we experienced a period of earthquake insurance being halted, along with my favorite (lifelong; two generations of exclusive use) insurance company refusing to insure my eco cabin, professionally built to code, approved by the county each step of the way, but not "conventional" enough for my favorite insurance company. Seriously. They could not grasp green ecological building choices at that time. I could not believe it. I was actually doing what we were supposed to be doing.
I really like the idea of having a tiny little affordable cute place somewhere as one base (attic apartment in Sweden? tiny parcel of land? tiny home? airstream? van camper?) so if there's a loss, or insurance becomes unavailable, it's not a giant loss. It's just a fraction of what one has. And it's easily replaceable.
Also, I now always say how grateful I am that my partner is not like me--he didn't sell everything; he kept his sailboat! If all else fails (no safe airports, trains, land), we can just float off to somewhere.
Yeah, we often say that the only property we would buy is something we could absolutely be able to lose without feeling a big financial hit. BTW, how much is there on that sailboat? LOL
Funny you mention that! It's an older boat, holding his lifetime of sailing/racing gear plus a tiny home setup. We've lived on it in the past and are now preparing for it to be our temporary home base again ... so we can be in a certain nice foreign country with local and transient orcas swimming by. ⛵🐳
I sold my condo overlooking the ocean in Fort Lauderdale in 2021. I decided that oceanfront property in Florida just wasn’t a good long-term investment. I start my full-time nomad life in May and I’m sure I’ll run into climate disasters along the way (as you have). Hopefully, as a nomad, I’ll be able to move on and try to stay a step or two of the next disaster. It’s a crazy way to think about living (albeit privileged) but it’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
My wife and I owned a property in France from 2014 to 2022. We've been nomads since then.
She would like to buy a property somewhere in Europe to have a home-base to return to when we want... I'm personally more on the fence considering the huge financial investment it would be.
But that's a perspective I have never considered. Thank you for bringing it up!
I think about this all the time. My sister lives in Northern Cali so the wildfires are a constant issue, and if it's not the fires it's the smoke and the air quality.
I think that we in Ottawa are pretty lucky but in the last 7 years we've had two "Once in a hundred years" floods, and nearby smoke from wildfires. I don't think we're anywhere near evacuating, and the flooding really only hits those on the shorelines, and I can't see that nomading would be an option for us with work and school age children, but I am constantly panicking about climate disasters and extreme weather events.
I think climate panic is hitting anyone who is paying attention. And even when a place is safe from something truly disastrous like Ottawa, the smoke is in unhealthy and incredibly unpleasant. And most of us have people we care about in truly dangerous places.
I close on the sale of my home in South Florida in two weeks and will rent after this in a different, less risky area but still in Florida right now. Insurance skyrocketed, home repairs became more costly, taxes are through the roof. And I’m tired of the anxiety that comes from the constant flooding in the summer with the summer rains. I do think about home ownership and natural disasters allll the time, for the last 30 years. But didn’t think about digital nomading as a solution. Thank you for the new perspective. One of my concerns with becoming a nomad though is no pets. Maybe you have a post about this you could refer me to?
Hi E. Totally get why you’d want to sell that house in Florida. I honestly do not understand keeping property there. We have a friend who just bought in Arizona and we don’t get that either.
We haven’t traveled with pets, so don’t have an article. We do know folks who do travel with animals and we’re going to reach out to them about having them write an article.
I read this a lot of conflicting emotions. On the one hand, I couldn’t agree more. A small % of us should take the opportunity as it’s only logical.
On the other hand, I shake my head at the irony of a US citizen (the worlds largest emitter and leading blocker of climate reform) being able to afford a climate nomad life while millions of people in my country (India) will be climate refugees for no fault of theirs. The only consolation I take is that it couldn’t happen to a nicer set of guys. So there’s that, and I shake my head and wish well.
That is 100% fair, and in hindsight, I wish I'd included an acknowledgment of that irony. I hang my head in shame that so many in America -- but most especially Republicans -- either deny or block all attempts to stop climate change.
I was anyways pretty sure it was on your mind, even if you didn’t pen it down. You don’t need to feel ashamed; we can only take responsibility for what is in our circle of control.
Prompted by your comment, I added a line to the article. Thank you for your thoughtful and respectful response!
B/c I'm nuts I watched a YouTube clip of the candidate for EPA secretary hearings yesterday. He didn't even know that we were at 1.5C threshold now. Great article, so inclusive you guys. We've had our share too of natural disasters. Mostly earthquakes (which probably are NOT climate impacted but who knows) and hurricanes, which Are coming more fast and furiously of late. And those ARE climate related. Even the sargasso (have you seen it on MX Carib coast? Ugly smelly seaweed that has invaded the once beautiful beaches, think it goes up to FL too.).They say it's increase (and where it formerly stationed itself, in middle of Atlantic) is bc of warming oceans. So really, there's probably no TRULY safe place to 'rest.' And then there's non-climate disasters like the Aceh Tsunami, 2004, and volcanoes- Popo in MX though thankfully has not gone off lately. But Mt. St. Helens, who would've thunk it? (maybe the geologists-volcanologists). But probably all this is not a bad reason to NOT buy real estate. Insurance premiums are through the roof and will continue no doubt. So weird about Valencia! That flood came from nowhere. I dunno. But always good to get the word out there, kudos on that.
I think I’ve misread your comment as India being the “victim” of climate change instead of being referenced as the third largest contributor.
It truly doesn't seem fair to me to compare a poor, formerly colonized country like India that has only more recently industrialized (and is still, per capita, producing dramaticallyfra less greenhouse gas) to the West, which has grown extremely wealthy after 100+ years of extremely high emissions. It's comparing apples and oranges and ignoring very basic fairness.
You are right that India is 3rd largest in absolute terms. One also likes to look at some other metrics:
1. per capita: India averages 1.89 mtpc, global average is 4.7, US is 14.7z India is home to 17% of the world's population, but its share of global carbon emissions is less than 5%.
In contrast, the per capita emissions of the combined 17% population in developed countries account for 60% of global emissions
2. Historical emissions: even though US emissions account for 29 percent of the world’s total since the mid-1800s, I put this down to the natural path human development and technology of the times combined. It’s practical, but irrelevant for future purposes.
I certainly hope we in India can find a better way to develop (solar or nuclear power eg) so we don’t make the same mistakes developed countries made. If we do reach energy consumption per capita of US using carbon fuels, it will be curtains for us and for the rest of the world. We will definitely deserve that, when it happens.
Circling back to the topic of the nomadic life, I happen to be among the privileged top 1% that can maybe possibly afford to live anywhere. It’s a very logical choice if one can afford it. But the 99% cannot and that will impact the 1%. I am very alive to the ironies within India itself.
Thaks for such a thoughtful response, Kartik.
These are the questions that I imagine Trump thinks about at night while studying for the next day’s meetings.
😂😂😂 the brand of gallows humor I needed today to balance out the panic I feel. Thanks for the laugh, Matt
😂😂😂
Sigh...
I’m so glad you wrote this. It’s such an important point. Climate change is coming on so rapidly. I’ve been thinking of buying a little winter place in France and in this respect, climate change wasn’t even on my radar two years ago. Now we’re debating whether we’d rather deal with raging wildfire or devastating water scarcity. I think we’ll just rent.
It's hard to believe we're even having to consider this, isn't it?
I have 3 sons in their 40s who cannot become nomads but I think they will find your letter interesting. I hope they will subscribe to your blog. You always write something worthwhile. I do worry about what is going to happen in this country. The next 4 years will not be good nor we as Americans will be proud of. America is not the country I grew up believing it to be. 😢
Thank you, Betty. The kind words are very much appreciated. And boy does your comment "America is not the country I grew up believing it to be" resonate with me. I feel that very very much.
You are saying that you sold all your real estate and have now a regular revenue stream to finance your nomadic lifestyle. Would you share any info about how you structured your revenue stream? Thanks.
We have a financial advisor who has invested our money in a variety of stock funds, bonds, and other financial instruments. Honestly, it's fairly simple, though we leave the decisions as to where to put the money up to him.
Good questions... I live in Croatia which still has parts not terribly affected by climate changes. But we have something worse - bad politicians.
I think about this, probably more than is healthy. We own a little flat in Amsterdam, where paranoia about flooding is baked into the national consciousness (and for good reason, of course! Half this country was wrested from the sea, and it's a constant battle, because the sea wanted it back even before human-caused sea rise). The Dutch shrug, and say they'll build the dikes higher, but I'm not sure up till what point we can keep engineering ourselves out of catastrophe. Last year we bought a little Medieval house in Umbria, with meter-thick stone walls, and that's where we want to end up. Such places are built to withstand the heat of a long Italian summer. But I worry about the fact that there were weeks and weeks of heat advisories there last year--much more than usual. I look up the health of the water tables, I consult the earthquake maps, I wonder if wildfires in Umbria will ever get as bad as California. I look up the air quality, and unconsciously take a deeper breath.
I try to remember that worry is the luxury of those of us who have options. Even though remembering that doesn't really help me or anyone else. I feel guilty about worrying over my future when I'm one of the lucky ones with the ability to move, at least to an extent. In the face of something as all-encompassing as the climate crisis, I guess it's human nature to try to find safety for ourselves and the ones we love, to hedge our bets if we are able, to do our best to predict and control at least our own futures when the future of the planet feels so uncertain.
Those thick Italian walls are like the thick walls here in Mexico! As for worrying being a luxury, sure, but we all have to live our lives and you should be absolutely free to worry about -- and plan for -- your future. For me the key is trying to be a responsible citizen at the same time. But it's complicated and messy, and I don't have any great answers.
Lot's to ponder. Thanks for covering the topic. I wonder the carbon footprint of a nomad versus someone who stays in one place most of the year. Hard to quantify, but something to consider when weighing pros and cons.
Like with comparing the footprint of two different people who stay put, I think there is a wide variation with nomads. I know some who fly a horrifying amount, as well as those who rarely fly at all. I'm quite confident that our is definitely less than had we remained in Seattle.
Hey Michael, thanks for writing this! Great to hear your perspective as a nomad.
We've done the nomad life (3 years) and also the home/travel a lot life. We're leaning toward slomading again in the next couple of years as part of a shift out of a region (Central Oregon) that gets a ton of wildfire smoke.
We want to find a home base in the future (US or Europe), but are struggling with the same thing you are: every place has tradeoffs and risk! How the heck do you choose?
One consideration: when you're a nomad, you have fewer tools to deal with disasters and are more exposed if you happen to be somewhere when they hit. If it's smoky, you don't have a house with filters or you have to drive from Oregon to freaking Chicago to get away from it; if there's a heat wave, maybe you're in a country where the power cuts out and AC doesn't work (or wasn't available to start with). We've had nomad friends forced to flee for their lives in their trailer because of tornadoes when they could have stayed in their basements in a house. (But then deal with that wreckage, gah.)
No easy solutions here, just tradeoffs, right?
BTW, here's an interesting take from a climate journalist is that these can't even be called disasters anymore because they're basically expected! https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/the-last-disaster (His Substack has totally transformed how I think about climate migration and preparedness.)
To Kartik's point: if you're over 30, over 50% of CO2 emissions have occurred in your lifetime. Gulp.
That statistic about being over 30 makes me furious because this all could've been stopped! The answer was right there in front of us! And you're right about the trade-offs, but all of the nomad minuses pale for me in comparison to losing my home.
Incredibly frustrating! Short-term thinking fails again.
I hear you on the nomad minuses... it's of course all so personal!
I sold my house in CA 5 years ago and would not buy there again now, due to fire risk everywhere. Like you, I use that money to travel much of the year, although I’m not 100% a nomad yet. I think this way of reactive living is sensible.
I'm hearing from a lot of Californians who got out for fear of fires.
We are right there with you.
Seattle once had rainy summers and snowy winters. It's crazy how that is no longer.
And, years ago, we experienced a period of earthquake insurance being halted, along with my favorite (lifelong; two generations of exclusive use) insurance company refusing to insure my eco cabin, professionally built to code, approved by the county each step of the way, but not "conventional" enough for my favorite insurance company. Seriously. They could not grasp green ecological building choices at that time. I could not believe it. I was actually doing what we were supposed to be doing.
I really like the idea of having a tiny little affordable cute place somewhere as one base (attic apartment in Sweden? tiny parcel of land? tiny home? airstream? van camper?) so if there's a loss, or insurance becomes unavailable, it's not a giant loss. It's just a fraction of what one has. And it's easily replaceable.
Also, I now always say how grateful I am that my partner is not like me--he didn't sell everything; he kept his sailboat! If all else fails (no safe airports, trains, land), we can just float off to somewhere.
Yeah, we often say that the only property we would buy is something we could absolutely be able to lose without feeling a big financial hit. BTW, how much is there on that sailboat? LOL
Funny you mention that! It's an older boat, holding his lifetime of sailing/racing gear plus a tiny home setup. We've lived on it in the past and are now preparing for it to be our temporary home base again ... so we can be in a certain nice foreign country with local and transient orcas swimming by. ⛵🐳
I sold my condo overlooking the ocean in Fort Lauderdale in 2021. I decided that oceanfront property in Florida just wasn’t a good long-term investment. I start my full-time nomad life in May and I’m sure I’ll run into climate disasters along the way (as you have). Hopefully, as a nomad, I’ll be able to move on and try to stay a step or two of the next disaster. It’s a crazy way to think about living (albeit privileged) but it’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
No, it isn't going away.
Great article and reflections, Michael! I also wrote about this issue in my newsletter, I would appreciate if you read: https://nodirectionhome.substack.com/p/the-first-self-proclaimed-climate
I suspect more and more of us will be discussing this during the coming years.
I have never thought about it this way.
My wife and I owned a property in France from 2014 to 2022. We've been nomads since then.
She would like to buy a property somewhere in Europe to have a home-base to return to when we want... I'm personally more on the fence considering the huge financial investment it would be.
But that's a perspective I have never considered. Thank you for bringing it up!
It's no fun to have to think about but the times warrant it. 😞😞😞
I think about this all the time. My sister lives in Northern Cali so the wildfires are a constant issue, and if it's not the fires it's the smoke and the air quality.
I think that we in Ottawa are pretty lucky but in the last 7 years we've had two "Once in a hundred years" floods, and nearby smoke from wildfires. I don't think we're anywhere near evacuating, and the flooding really only hits those on the shorelines, and I can't see that nomading would be an option for us with work and school age children, but I am constantly panicking about climate disasters and extreme weather events.
I think climate panic is hitting anyone who is paying attention. And even when a place is safe from something truly disastrous like Ottawa, the smoke is in unhealthy and incredibly unpleasant. And most of us have people we care about in truly dangerous places.
I close on the sale of my home in South Florida in two weeks and will rent after this in a different, less risky area but still in Florida right now. Insurance skyrocketed, home repairs became more costly, taxes are through the roof. And I’m tired of the anxiety that comes from the constant flooding in the summer with the summer rains. I do think about home ownership and natural disasters allll the time, for the last 30 years. But didn’t think about digital nomading as a solution. Thank you for the new perspective. One of my concerns with becoming a nomad though is no pets. Maybe you have a post about this you could refer me to?
Hi E. Totally get why you’d want to sell that house in Florida. I honestly do not understand keeping property there. We have a friend who just bought in Arizona and we don’t get that either.
We haven’t traveled with pets, so don’t have an article. We do know folks who do travel with animals and we’re going to reach out to them about having them write an article.