And while, I’m here, I also enjoyed talking to Japan’s Nikkei Asia, do read and watch!

I’ve now listed some of my 2024 live events – I hope to see you there!

Some 12,000 people died as a result of climate disasters this year, although the true figure is much higher, because climate change is a threat multiplier that exacerbates so many other killers, including conflict, hunger and disease. The four horsemen of the Anthropocene — heat, fire, floods and drought — killed many and ruined so many more. Violent storms caused billions of dollars of damage, destroyed businesses, disrupted transport, made refugees of holidaymakers, and pushed food prices beyond affordability for many.

These are the issues at the heart of my book Nomad Century, issues which will only intensify over the coming decades. I don’t shy away from the scale of the challenges, but this is a pragmatic book of solutions, and there has never been a better time to engage with them (except last year, or even last decade, or last millennium…). I’ve spent most of this year to that end: taking the discussion to different places and people.

Looking back on my 2023 highlights: NomadCentury came out in paperback. It was Highly Commended in the Wainwright Prize for nature writing 2023, shortlisted for the Zócalo Book Prize and the Christopher Moore Prize For Human Rights books. I am extremely grateful for the many invitations I received from around the world to discuss the issues in my book, which took me to conferences, lecture halls, festivals and bookshops, to speak to people including politicians, industry leaders, activists and children.

I was honoured and thrilled to deliver the opening author speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair, and to talk at literary festivals including at Hay, Cheltenham, Mantova, Oxford, Cambridge, Borris, Soneva, Wealden, Kite, Adelaide, Amsterdam, Brussels and more.

I contributed chapters to books and wrote articles, including this one, and this one, and this one. And I made a variety of programmes, including for BBC Radio 4, including to mark the 70th anniversary of the discovery of DNA’s structure, and this thought experiment: Imagine yourself in 2030, the year in which Britain achieved its goal to protect 30 per cent of its land and sea for nature. What does it look like and how did we manage it? And this asking: Can we prevent natural disasters? And this which asked: What would the world be like if energy became superabundant and very cheap? And I was privileged to speak to a wealth of brilliant individuals, asking questions on your behalf, including the very sadly missed Saleemul Huq.

I was honoured to be given the 2024 EGU Angela Croome Award for excellence in Earth, space and planetary science journalism.

And this year my book Nomad Century came out in multiple languages thanks to the wonderful work of translators and my brilliant publishers including in Italy, Germany, Korea, Japan, with more on the way….

I am so so grateful to all the journalists that have interviewed me for their publications and shows, organisers that have invited me to speak, bookshops that have supported my book and readers that have engaged with the issues. This century will be a huge upheaval but we still have many choices. Thanks for the kindness you’ve brought. The world is reeling from so many human-made disasters, bad leaders and with bleak prognosis – but we also hold solutions and among us are so many heroes.

Wishing you a happy healthy 2024!

Buy NOMAD CENTURY here in the UK, and in the USA!

Nomad Century is the most important book I imagine I’ll ever read

Mary Roach

Buy NOMAD CENTURY here: in the UK, and in the USA!

Picked as a Best Book of 2022 by: The Financial Times, NPR, The Times, New Statesman

I have been blown away by the generous support NOMAD CENTURY has received from reviewers, including some of the people I most admire. This book is a passion project born out of frustration for the way we are dealing with the biggest crisis humanity has faced in its history. I hope these reviews will persuade you to read it too:

With the government’s migration policy in such appalling disarray, Gaia Vince’s Nomad Century has to be the most timely book of the year. Vince’s calm, compassionate and authoritative explanation of the inevitability of migration is essential reading… There should be a copy on every desk in Whitehall — Michael Brooks, Books of the Year ― New Statesman

“ The case it makes for fresh thinking is utterly convincing” — Pilita Clark, Books of the Year —The Financial Times

A tour de force… Nomad Century should be on the reading list of anyone and everyone in any position of power. It is not simply a future atlas of human geography showing where will be habitable and for how many, but a hard-hitting must-read on how we will need to live in the coming decades to secure the long-term survival of humankind — Anjana Ahuja ― Financial Times

Essential, bold and clear-sighted… I have yet to read a book that takes the question of how to survive the coming decades more seriously — David Farrier ― Prospect

A powerful, provocative argument ― Nature

After a summer of climate catastrophes, not least the appalling floods that left a third of Pakistan under water at the end of August, now should be the moment to consider radical solutions — Philippa Nuttall ― New Statesman

Engaging and constructive… Vince leaves the reader with more than a few sparks of hope ― Herald

Gaia Vince’s new book should be read not just by every politician, but by every person on the planet, because it lays out, much more clearly than any existing scientific assessment, the world we are creating through global heating… Passionate and powerful — Bob Ward ― Observer

Powerful… It holds much wisdom with which to tackle the challenges of our turbulent century… Nomad Century is a visionary book, an attempt to imagine how climate change might reshape our notions of what is politically possible — Ben Cooke ― The Times

Nomad Century is a landmark work – terrifying in its message and urgency, but ultimately empowering in its conviction about a path forward. Gaia Vince lays bare the scale of the challenge before us, and the grand ideas that will be needed to meet it. We must be ready; this book shows us how — Ed Yong

Once again Gaia Vince demonstrates that she is one of the finest science writers at work today — Bill Bryson

The climate crisis already has millions of people on the move, and that number will steadily grow higher till it breaks the political structures of the planet – unless, as the author suggests, we start now to remake those structures so they can cope, and indeed benefit, from the flow of humans that is now inevitable. An important and provocative start to a crucial conversation — Bill McKibben

This book is a rather astounding addition to a growing body of thought that suggests the twenty-first century is going to include, and even require, lots of human migration-and that handled correctly, this could be part of a good adaptation to the climate and biosphere crisis we are now entering. What Vince gives us here is some cognitive mapping to understand the situation and see a way forward — Kim Stanley Robinson

Vince’s perspectives and proposals are refreshing in a world where a Don’t-Look-Up-style denial is solidly in place… If this book results in even a smidgeon more sympathy for the huge numbers of people being forced away from their homes, that will be a great thing — Sally Hayden ― Irish Times

Nomad Century is the most important book I imagine I’ll ever read. Gaia Vince calmly — without drum-banging or hand-wringing — sets forth likely consequences and end-of-century projections for our rapidly changing planet. It’ll knock you flat. But before you hit the ground, she hands over an impressively detailed survival plan: supporting radical migration from newly uninhabitable regions, rethinking urban structures and food practices, restoring climate. The book is heavily researched, but Gaia’s clean, intelligent prose propels the reader — Mary Roach

Terrifying, yet strangely hopeful and immensely important. I’m not sure if you can ‘love’ a book about our precarious future but this is essential reading. Nomad Century brings together the two most pressing issues of our time: the climate emergency and migration. Every single one of us will be affected by this – and therefore we should all read this book. It’s packed with facts, solutions and even some optimism … so, yes, maybe I actually do ‘love’ it — Andrea Wulf

Brilliant. The most far-sighted book on migration I have read. Gaia Vince doesn’t waste a sentence. Read this to understand our future — Henry Mance

Nomad Century will broaden your horizon when thinking about the biggest humanitarian crisis of known history. A passionate plea for humankind — Ece Temelkuran

Vince sounds the air raid siren for humanity, then offers a thrilling path forward. A harrowing then inspiring read — Musa Okwonga

Rigorously researched, accessibly written and illuminating… Vince’s book makes a persuasive case that we can meet the momentous tasks ahead ― Geographical

9 September | Foreign Press Association

12 September | Tipping Points Conference

13 September | Trouble Club

15 September | Topping Bookshop, Bath

24 September | Thames Ditton Festival

30 September | Ways to Change The World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy

8 October | New Scientist Live

10 October | Cheltenham Literature Festival

15 October | Wells Literature Festival

16 October | Off The Shelf Festival, Sheffield

20 October | London Literature Festival, Southbank

2 November | Wired Impact

3 November | Stroud Book Festival

6 November | Conway Hall

8 November | Sky TV Breakfast

9 November | BBC Debate Night

11 November | Wired Twitter Space

13 November | BBC World Service Weekend Programme

15 November | Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, Washington DC (v)

18 November | Edinburgh

19 November | College of Europe, Warsaw, Natolin Academy of Migration

20 November | BerkoFest Book Festival

24 November | Taunton Literature Festival

29 November | Science of Biodiversity: Costa Rica

2023

21 February | Vermont Council on World Affairs (online)

21 February | European Book Club (online)

23 February | Devex Book Club (online)

25 February | Winchester Cathedral

8 March | Adelaide Writers Festival

9 March | University of NSW, Sydney

16 March | Nesta

17 March | Cambridge Climate Lecture Series

20 March | Foreign Policy Association Great Decisions, Grand Rapids, Michigan

26 March | Ted X Mumbai

30 March | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford

17 April | 5×5 on Fire

18 April | Boise State University (online)

21 April | Cambridge Literary Festival

16 May | Milan

19 May | Bath

29 May | Hay

9 June | Cheltenham Science Festival

10 June | Kite Festival, Oxfordshire

17 June | Festival of Writing & Ideas, Borris, Co Carlow, Ireland

24 June | Wealdon Literary Festival

7 July | Buxton

5 August | Wilderness Festival

9 November | Keele World Affairs

Climate change is underway and the world will become more dangerous this century. We must stop heating our planet to mitigate the danger, and we will also need to adapt to the very different world we are making. But, large populations live in places that will not be able to adapt: they will need to move. It is time we started talking about it. NOMAD CENTURY is my manifesto for how we survive this century.

This is my most heartfelt, personal book – I really want to start a conversation and I hope you’ll take part. I’m thrilled to have received some early endorsements from people I hugely admire, and I’ll post those soon. Meanwhile, here’s an interview in The Bookseller that explains a little more.

NOMAD CENTURY is published in August and do please preorder your copy – it makes a huge difference to an author!

But they are…imperfect. And muddled.

Humanity has two vital, separate tasks this century:

1) stop environmental degradation;

2) maintain safe, habitable global temperature

The two are connected but these are different goals and must be pursued independently. Ensuring this should help keep us away from some damaging offsets , false accounting and inappropriate solutions.

Task 1 involves ending pollution of our air, soils, oceans and waterways with ecologically and socially harmful substances, from gut-blocking microplastics to climate altering gases to toxic heavy metals. It means ending unsustainable deforestation, overfishing and habitat destruction.

Task 2 involves keeping global temperatures at safe levels, so we can live in most of the places we do know, grow our crops and prevent dangerous events including runaway ice melt at the poles. This means using strategies such as enhanced rock weathering, fertilising ocean photosynthesisers, and techniques such as reflecting solar heat in the stratosphere or through cloud brightening.

Over time, the successful management of the first task will also start to address the second task. But not for several decades. COP will not keep us below 1.5C! Even if Glasgow had been incredibly successful, the greatest of its ambitions was to keep temperature rise below 1.5C by 2100 – we would still have exceeded this during the coming decades before, it was hoped, coming back down. Nobody expects us to avoid dangerous temperatures.

It’s high time we started engaging with the reality of our situation.

Love and technology: human survival traits

Coincidentally, the first of my BBC radio programmes about how climate technology can save us was broadcast, looking at geoengineering to reduce deadly global temperatures. The next episode airs next week.

It’s been a while since I last attended a COP climate conference and I’ll admit to mixed emotions about my fairly last-minute decision to not attend this one. On the one hand, I’m sad to miss the excitement; on the other, queuing and covid… I’m presenting BBC Inside Science this month, so I’ll be covering it from London and sending my best wishes to all my friends, colleagues and fellow climate geeks up in Glazgee.

And, after the IEA recommended an immediate end to all new oil exploration if we are to meet our NetZero emissions targets, why is it still going on? That’s what we cover in the next episode (available from Monday).

And I’m back hosting BBC Inside Science again on BBC Radio 4 this month. You can listen to this week’s episode here.