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Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security
According to U.S. military planners, climate change now poses the #1 national security threat to the United States, even before terrorism. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reports that a person is four times more likely to be forced to move due to environmental disaster than by war, and in 2015 alone, 19.2 million people were displaced worldwide by environmental disasters. Droughts, fires, and floods are driving ever-larger numbers of people to cross national borders, and the problem is not just the vast numbers of people on the move, but also the legions of highly militarized border armies being deployed to stop them.
In fast-paced prose, Todd Miller travels to hot spots in the United States and around the globe to investigate how environmental crisis is creating millions of climate refugees who are challenging the developed world's borders and resources. Miller explores how a sense of threat in the United States is giving rise to high-tech surveillance fortresses and fueling calls for an ever-expanding border wall. He also weaves in stories of people engaged in creative defiance of the armies, border patrols, and police being deployed to fight those in need. Miller passionately makes the case for ecological restoration, not border militarization, as the best way to achieve sustainability and security.
Todd Miller's writings about the border have appeared in the New York Times, Tom Dispatch, and many other places.
Praise for Storming the Wall
"Nothing will test human institutions like climate change in this century—as this book makes crystal clear, people on the move from rising waters, spreading deserts, and endless storms could profoundly destabilize our civilizations unless we seize the chance to re-imagine our relationships to each other. This is no drill, but it is a test, and it will be graded pass-fail"—Bill McKibben, author Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
"As Todd Miller shows in this important and harrowing book, climate-driven migration is set to become one of the defining issues of our time. … This is a must-read book."—Christian Parenti, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, author of Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence
"Todd Miller reports from the cracks in the walls of the global climate security state—militarized zones designed to keep powerful elites safe from poor and uprooted peoples. … Miller finds hope—hope that may not survive in Trumpworld."—Molly Molloy, Research librarian for Latin America and the border at New Mexico State University and creator of "Frontera List"
"Miller delivers a prescient and sober view of our increasingly dystopian planet as the impacts of human-caused climate disruption continue to intensify."—Dahr Jamail, award-winning independent journalist, author of The End of Ice
"Storming the Wall demonstrates why the struggles for social justice and ecological sustainability must be one struggle. Todd Miller's important book chronicles how existing disparities in wealth and power, combined with the dramatic changes we are causing in this planet's ecosystems, mean either we come together around our common humanity or forfeit the right to call ourselves fully human."—Robert Jensen, University of Texas at Austin, author of The End of Patriarchy, Plain Radical, and Arguing for Our Lives
"Governments across the world today are planning for climate change. The problem, as Todd Miller ably shows, is that they're not planning mitigation, but militarization."—Roy Scranton, author of War Porn and Learning to Die in the Anthropocene
"Here is the largely untold back story of the thousands of people turning up on our borders, and challenging the very idea of those frontiers in the process."—Mark Schapiro, author of The End of Stationarity: Searching for the New Normal in the Age of Carbon Shock
In fast-paced prose, Todd Miller travels to hot spots in the United States and around the globe to investigate how environmental crisis is creating millions of climate refugees who are challenging the developed world's borders and resources. Miller explores how a sense of threat in the United States is giving rise to high-tech surveillance fortresses and fueling calls for an ever-expanding border wall. He also weaves in stories of people engaged in creative defiance of the armies, border patrols, and police being deployed to fight those in need. Miller passionately makes the case for ecological restoration, not border militarization, as the best way to achieve sustainability and security.
Todd Miller's writings about the border have appeared in the New York Times, Tom Dispatch, and many other places.
Praise for Storming the Wall
"Nothing will test human institutions like climate change in this century—as this book makes crystal clear, people on the move from rising waters, spreading deserts, and endless storms could profoundly destabilize our civilizations unless we seize the chance to re-imagine our relationships to each other. This is no drill, but it is a test, and it will be graded pass-fail"—Bill McKibben, author Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
"As Todd Miller shows in this important and harrowing book, climate-driven migration is set to become one of the defining issues of our time. … This is a must-read book."—Christian Parenti, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, author of Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence
"Todd Miller reports from the cracks in the walls of the global climate security state—militarized zones designed to keep powerful elites safe from poor and uprooted peoples. … Miller finds hope—hope that may not survive in Trumpworld."—Molly Molloy, Research librarian for Latin America and the border at New Mexico State University and creator of "Frontera List"
"Miller delivers a prescient and sober view of our increasingly dystopian planet as the impacts of human-caused climate disruption continue to intensify."—Dahr Jamail, award-winning independent journalist, author of The End of Ice
"Storming the Wall demonstrates why the struggles for social justice and ecological sustainability must be one struggle. Todd Miller's important book chronicles how existing disparities in wealth and power, combined with the dramatic changes we are causing in this planet's ecosystems, mean either we come together around our common humanity or forfeit the right to call ourselves fully human."—Robert Jensen, University of Texas at Austin, author of The End of Patriarchy, Plain Radical, and Arguing for Our Lives
"Governments across the world today are planning for climate change. The problem, as Todd Miller ably shows, is that they're not planning mitigation, but militarization."—Roy Scranton, author of War Porn and Learning to Die in the Anthropocene
"Here is the largely untold back story of the thousands of people turning up on our borders, and challenging the very idea of those frontiers in the process."—Mark Schapiro, author of The End of Stationarity: Searching for the New Normal in the Age of Carbon Shock
262 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
July 28, 2018
Compelling and (I think) very prescient argument about the relationship between climate change and border militarization. 700 million people live in low-elevation areas vulnerable to rising sea levels, and even more are already suffering the consequences of drought, floods and other extreme weather events. In the language of the U.S. military, climate change is a "threat multiplier" that is likely to exacerbate both internal and cross-border displacement in response to such environmental changes. The UN expects there to be as many as 250 million "climate refugees" by 2050; the World Bank puts it closer to one billion. To those in charge of the increasingly well-funded national security apparatuses across the world - and the hugely profitable military-industrial complex that supports them - these people are not victims in need of humanitarian assistance, but threats to be managed. In fact, among the scariest passages in the book were direct quotes from U.S. military publications or personnel - not only do they explicitly link climate displacement and border fortification, they are already preparing to "hold back unwanted starving immigrants from the Caribbean islands (an especially severe problem), Mexico, and South America" [Pentagon report, 2003]. It feels particularly ironic that the response to a problem that so desperately needs a global, co-ordinated response, the reaction is towards increasing protectionism and militarization. While it's a great thesis, I wasn't a huge fan of the writing, which seemed to jump awkwardly between grad school essay peppered with liberal quotations, reportage style journalism from the "frontlines of climate change", and maudlin personal reflections on the need for hope in spite of everything. I also think the solutions to the climate crisis are going to have to be more than protest, appeals to native wisdom, and restoring the odd landscape. That's perhaps just me being a little uncharitable though.
September 9, 2022
An extraordinary and bone-chilling book. I was reluctant to read another book about climate change because I already know how this story goes: we're making the earth unliveable and those in power are just ignoring and denying reality, right?
Not so, reveals Miller: those in power are proactively preparing for climate change, with massive investments and detailed plans. But the crisis they're readying to confront isn't environmental destruction. No: it's the people affected by it -- the masses who lose their homes and their land and maybe become ungovernable, maybe look for a home elsewhere, maybe demand a redistribution of what resources remain. Instead of trying to sustain the earth's life systems for all, states are preparing to sustain the system of capitalism and the power of those who rule.
Miller reveals that every agency with guns, guards, and gates is preparing to combat climate refugees. They talk about it in their public memos. They are supported by the same old war profiteers with new, all-encompassing technologies.
It's a rough book to read, but there are some things I really love about it. Miller shows that we can't think of migration and climate change as two separate issues, because the State doesn't. We must fight border militarization while demanding environmental care, or else it's a fascist hellscape for us all.
The book also makes a powerful argument that we're in this together. The border isn't a place, it's a politics. With current technologies, any region that experiences environmental crisis, even well inside national boundaries, can become blocked off and contained. Any state can refuse entrance to "internally displaced people." Those who live near the border already know that border militarization technologies are used against US citizens -- Miller shows that these weapons can be turned against anyone, at any time.
I wouldn't say this is a hopeful book, but it does have a clear-eyed analysis that feels helpful for navigating the road ahead.
Not so, reveals Miller: those in power are proactively preparing for climate change, with massive investments and detailed plans. But the crisis they're readying to confront isn't environmental destruction. No: it's the people affected by it -- the masses who lose their homes and their land and maybe become ungovernable, maybe look for a home elsewhere, maybe demand a redistribution of what resources remain. Instead of trying to sustain the earth's life systems for all, states are preparing to sustain the system of capitalism and the power of those who rule.
Miller reveals that every agency with guns, guards, and gates is preparing to combat climate refugees. They talk about it in their public memos. They are supported by the same old war profiteers with new, all-encompassing technologies.
It's a rough book to read, but there are some things I really love about it. Miller shows that we can't think of migration and climate change as two separate issues, because the State doesn't. We must fight border militarization while demanding environmental care, or else it's a fascist hellscape for us all.
The book also makes a powerful argument that we're in this together. The border isn't a place, it's a politics. With current technologies, any region that experiences environmental crisis, even well inside national boundaries, can become blocked off and contained. Any state can refuse entrance to "internally displaced people." Those who live near the border already know that border militarization technologies are used against US citizens -- Miller shows that these weapons can be turned against anyone, at any time.
I wouldn't say this is a hopeful book, but it does have a clear-eyed analysis that feels helpful for navigating the road ahead.
September 14, 2020
This book strikes the perfect balance between objective, focused scholarly research and an on-the-ground, present voice embedded in the structure without being sanctimonious or self-congratulatory. Miller does an incredible job of drawing the disparate threads of a tremendously complex situation together, painting a truly dark picture that did leave me helpless. But the humanity on display, and his openness, really put me back together. I did not expect an emotional response beyond anger and helplessness, but I got something much more.
February 9, 2020
Todd Miller’s book Storming the Wall can be summed up as insightful journalism reporting on a current and future scenario that is both scary as hell and heart-wrenching.
The subtitle of the book explains it all: “Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security.” Most of us are aware that we are already experiencing the effects of the climate crisis: rising sea levels, super storms, flooding, drought, extended heat waves, and massive forest firsts. Some of us know that waves of refugees around the planet are a result of climate-related catastrophes. For example, the most recent waves of refugees from Central America have been explained as a result of cartel violence. But the real, underlying cause is climate-related. Farmers in these countries are experiencing severe droughts to the level that they can no longer grow enough to eat, much less support themselves and their families. So they head north to find jobs.
Many of us have not really connected to the “homeland security” part of the climate crisis. Yes, there’s a lot of talk, and there’s a wall being built along the southern border, to keep out refugees. What is not clearly addressed is the issue of the elite of the world using the current security apparatus to maintain the status quo. Most pointedly, the elite will make sure that they stay safe while the rest of us, even those of us in the same nation, drown, starve, or burn.
Have you considered internal borders in the U.S.? Miller takes us back to the Dust Bowl when barriers were set up at the California state line to stop desperate Dust Bowl refugees from entering. He gives examples of how “security” during Hurricane Katrina was deemed more important than rescue and relief when Border Patrol agents were sent to black neighborhoods in New Orleans. Probably the scariest chapter in the book is “Phoenix Dystopia” in which Miller describes internal borders in Arizona that exist now and his speculation about more borders being set up to keep overheated desert dwellers in their place. And what about all those refugees from American coastal regions? Will they be allowed to migrate wherever they want to go when their homes go underwater? Not likely.
The most heartfelt passages are those written to his son William who was born when Miller was writing this book. He tells William that it may be too late, that we may already be doomed, and that “we may perish from droughts, super storms, and the bullets of the elite.” Miller makes a compelling argument for us to band together to solve problems, and he gives examples of people doing just that. He makes an existential argument for imagination, for doing good, for building bridges, and for finding the joy that still exists in life.
He says to William, “We need each other more than ever, for the living world teaches us that all things are connected. Maybe we’ll learn to live in harmony with this beautiful planet, and become our own salvation.” Yes, maybe. Highly recommended.
The subtitle of the book explains it all: “Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security.” Most of us are aware that we are already experiencing the effects of the climate crisis: rising sea levels, super storms, flooding, drought, extended heat waves, and massive forest firsts. Some of us know that waves of refugees around the planet are a result of climate-related catastrophes. For example, the most recent waves of refugees from Central America have been explained as a result of cartel violence. But the real, underlying cause is climate-related. Farmers in these countries are experiencing severe droughts to the level that they can no longer grow enough to eat, much less support themselves and their families. So they head north to find jobs.
Many of us have not really connected to the “homeland security” part of the climate crisis. Yes, there’s a lot of talk, and there’s a wall being built along the southern border, to keep out refugees. What is not clearly addressed is the issue of the elite of the world using the current security apparatus to maintain the status quo. Most pointedly, the elite will make sure that they stay safe while the rest of us, even those of us in the same nation, drown, starve, or burn.
Have you considered internal borders in the U.S.? Miller takes us back to the Dust Bowl when barriers were set up at the California state line to stop desperate Dust Bowl refugees from entering. He gives examples of how “security” during Hurricane Katrina was deemed more important than rescue and relief when Border Patrol agents were sent to black neighborhoods in New Orleans. Probably the scariest chapter in the book is “Phoenix Dystopia” in which Miller describes internal borders in Arizona that exist now and his speculation about more borders being set up to keep overheated desert dwellers in their place. And what about all those refugees from American coastal regions? Will they be allowed to migrate wherever they want to go when their homes go underwater? Not likely.
The most heartfelt passages are those written to his son William who was born when Miller was writing this book. He tells William that it may be too late, that we may already be doomed, and that “we may perish from droughts, super storms, and the bullets of the elite.” Miller makes a compelling argument for us to band together to solve problems, and he gives examples of people doing just that. He makes an existential argument for imagination, for doing good, for building bridges, and for finding the joy that still exists in life.
He says to William, “We need each other more than ever, for the living world teaches us that all things are connected. Maybe we’ll learn to live in harmony with this beautiful planet, and become our own salvation.” Yes, maybe. Highly recommended.
August 9, 2021
This book articulated many concepts that I assumed to be true but have neglected looking into for a while now, and I’m very happy I read it (although the concepts are still saddening). Such topics include how the US department of homeland security presents the paradigm for a “sustainable, secure, and resilient future” by demonstrating how efficiency and sustainability will enhance americas national security.
At first glance that sentence seems okay, but it is confusing and infuriating that the government can promote sustainability in a way that inhibits climate change refugees from obtaining basic human needs/rights. Simply put, the magnitude of government funds allocated to keeping people out of borders is insane. The possibilities of more beneficial ways to allocate that money seem endless to me.
Climate change refugees have often been noted as floods of criminals and not as an increased number of humans fleeing environmental crisis. This book was published during the Trump administration, and I’m very interested if much/any has changed.
This is the longest review I’ve ever wrote. Thanks for sticking until the end, clearly I have much to say.
At first glance that sentence seems okay, but it is confusing and infuriating that the government can promote sustainability in a way that inhibits climate change refugees from obtaining basic human needs/rights. Simply put, the magnitude of government funds allocated to keeping people out of borders is insane. The possibilities of more beneficial ways to allocate that money seem endless to me.
Climate change refugees have often been noted as floods of criminals and not as an increased number of humans fleeing environmental crisis. This book was published during the Trump administration, and I’m very interested if much/any has changed.
This is the longest review I’ve ever wrote. Thanks for sticking until the end, clearly I have much to say.
January 16, 2023
Well researched and well written. Breaks down the elite hysterical response to climate crisis and the compounding factors leading to mass migration on a world scale. Goes in depth on how the current national security apparatus treats the problems as threat rather than humanitarian or climate refugees. Loosely explores the fallacy of further strengthening fortress Europe and America rather than dealing with the factors that could mitigate runaway carbon emissions.
June 5, 2021
An interesting look on how climate change can impact the military spending of industrialized nations and how human migration can dictate how/where aid is sent.
March 20, 2022
A vital piece of journalism.
April 22, 2019
Five stars for importance, must-know info, and timeliness.
In the past month I've read two books on the climate catastrophe: The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells (reviewed elsewhere) which charts the course of climate change per degree centigrade that the earth warms - catastrophe after catastrophe, the earth acting as it must; and, Storming the Wall which charts the activity of governments as they respond to the human catastrophes that a climate catastrophe engenders - "guns, guards, and gates."
As the subtitle states, this is a book about human migration caused by climate change, and the role of Homeland Security - a new(ish) multi-billion dollar industry kicked into gear after 9/11, and now focusing on climate refugees. It's the nouveau war on drugs now that the old war on drugs has failed except as a way to criminalize asylum seekers, and beef up Homeland Security's budget. (The largest security marketplace is in San Diego, at an annual expo visited by functionaries legal, and extra-legal. You could equip your private army of border patrol “oath-keepers” by one-stop shopping.)
When people hear "climate refugee," the immediate reaction is that some geography has become unlivable (people mostly think heat, or sea-level rise,) but the truth is that many climate refugees are not fleeing inhospitable weather, but the ecological and economic upheaval, crime and government/police repression that follows on the tail of catastrophe.
Governments, world wide, have responded not by focused, dramatic action to stop greenhouse gas emissions (always have been and still the leading cause of climate change) or by in-country relief, but by a dramatic increase in the militarization of borders. Walls, towers, drones, sophisticated tracking equipment, vehicles, prison camps, and guns lead the way in terms of hardware, while conscience free bureaucrats make and maintain policy, and an increasingly beleaguered border patrol tries to carry policy out. It all amounts to keeping people from moving, and if they do move, stopping them at a border. Still at the beginning of all this upheaval, we think of borders as national, but we can expect the Homeland Security industry to expand definitions as individual states, and smaller municipalities start militarizing their borders - land, sea, and air.
It’s not just happening at the borders. The oil industry, most notably, is spending tons of money on lobbying efforts in order to exploit new land, and hinder the development and use of alternate fuel sources, and elected officials are standing with their hands out to grab a piece of the action. Bought and paid for, they pass laws that favor industry over earth. Meanwhile, governments are becoming more repressive in terms of hampering climate activists, there's even been a marked increase in the assassinations of climate activists - especially in the Philippines which is a definite ground zero governed by Donald Trump's soul mate Rodrigo Duterte.
Both books let us in on the fact we’re fucked in the short run, and precarious in the longer term, and hold out only moderate hope. But it��s good to know what we’re up against, and these books are “tell-all’s” much more important than tracking the day by day follies of the Trump administration.
Important reads – highly recommended.
PS: City Lights published Storming the Wall, and deserves high praise for having done so.
May 13, 2019
I wanted to give this four and a half stars but that's not an option. There were a number of sloppy editing errors that amounted to typos that made the already somewhat difficult subject matter all the more difficult (or annoying). I read about halfway through this book and then had to take a break and read something else. But I'm very glad I returned to it to finish it. Chapter Five, "Phoenix Dystopia: Mass Migration in the Homeland" spurred me to keep reading. As I write this, the federal government shutdown continues because of the border wall. It isn't the answer. I think the answer lies in doing what we can, as nations, to stabilize a sorely disrupted environment and to truly think about consequences of our actions, as both country and individual, and consider the kind of world we want to live in. Selfish, paranoid, and short-sighted "leadership" isn't going to get me anywhere I want to be.
January 31, 2019
"One important revelation in Miller’s book is that climate change science is wholly uncontroversial inside the military and security establishment, even high up in the Trump administration. It’s widely accepted that the warming world will soon see many more refugees – 50 million, 250 million, a billion, nobody can say for sure – even if climate migrants can’t formally be called refugees under present international law."
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n03/mckenzi...
September 15, 2017
A must-read in the age of neoconservative politics dominating the U.S.A.
Of particular interest are chapters 2-5, in which Miller deftly expands and localizes his central thesis: climate change will bring about refugee crises that will in turn establish a counter-security-surveillance-state that surpasses even the most shocking examples in his previous book, Border Patrol Nation. Like in BPN, Miller dedicates chapters to global occurrences like the 2013 Phillipines typhoon that both illustrate and anticipate climate change's growing threat to humanity.
And it's not all gloom and doom. Miller ends with two chapters that point to people's movements and even some possible solutions. Overall, it's an enlightening read that shouldn't be wasted on progressive audiences. Give this book to a climate denier this holiday season!
Of particular interest are chapters 2-5, in which Miller deftly expands and localizes his central thesis: climate change will bring about refugee crises that will in turn establish a counter-security-surveillance-state that surpasses even the most shocking examples in his previous book, Border Patrol Nation. Like in BPN, Miller dedicates chapters to global occurrences like the 2013 Phillipines typhoon that both illustrate and anticipate climate change's growing threat to humanity.
And it's not all gloom and doom. Miller ends with two chapters that point to people's movements and even some possible solutions. Overall, it's an enlightening read that shouldn't be wasted on progressive audiences. Give this book to a climate denier this holiday season!
November 29, 2019
second time read for my "migration and borders in a time of climate crisis." good readable intro for undergrads. a bit reductive and melodramatic at times, and this book has a ton of spelling/grammar errors.
February 14, 2019
Premise is plausible, but really just an article padded into a book
Want to read
January 29, 2021From Follett: A well-researched and grim exploration of the connections between climate change and the political hostility toward the refugees it creates.Journalist and activist Miller (Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security, 2014) expands on his earlier focus on U.S.–Mexico border controversies with an alarming catalog of climatological effects on population movements, surveillance, violence, and other current issues. “The theater for future climate battles,” he writes, “will be the world’s ever thickening border zones…vast numbers of people will be on the move, and vast numbers of people will be trained, armed, and paid to stop them.” In eight punchy, discretely themed chapters, the author establishes that the destructive effects of climate change are already manifest and that the U.S. is establishing a violent, heavy-handed pattern of response to it, as seen in the ramping up of border security. Miller visited several locales to witness this bleak transition, including Honduras and the U.S.–Mexico border, and he argues that these developing strife zones, far from representing natural change, are fundamentally class-based phenomena: “In the climate era, coexisting worlds of luxury living and impoverished desperation will only be magnified and compounded.” Ironically, the American military is committed to scientifically based preparation for coming crises, as is private enterprise. Miller also visited security conventions to see how the same corporatized elites who resist climate-change measures like the Paris Agreement will benefit financially from its increasing ill effects. He emphasizes that the harrowing confluence among climate disasters and militarized responses on behalf of elites is already prominent, noting that murders of activists skyrocketed in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan, comparable to the use of privatized security to resegregate New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Miller makes a convincing, chilling argument based on an effective synthesis of research, interviews, and personal observation, and the impact is only slightly undercut by an occasionally shrill or pedantic tone. A galvanizing forecast of global warming’s endgame and a powerful indictment of America’s current stance.
September 28, 2020
Read for book riot’s Read Harder task 15: read a book on climate change. I have to be honest; I probably would not have picked this up if it wasn’t for that challenge, which is WHY I participate-it forces me to read things I wouldn’t have otherwise tried, and in many ways, it’s for the better.
Storming the Wall is from 2017, so some things already feel dated; I feel like so much has happened in the past three years and we know so much more about Trump. What this book is about is how climate change is inextricably linked to our border policies. Climate refugees are real, and we are exploiting other countries and then militarizing our borders to deny access to resources gained through that exploitation. Instead of investing in climate solutions, we are investing in keeping more people out, which pushes people further into poverty and death. It’s brutal. The look at some of these crossings and WHY people cross is gut-wrenching but this context is incredibly important.
I will also give the author this; he ends on a hopeful note- a note I needed about how people can revitalize borders and bring growth to barren soil. This story he tells about these people who basically built a garden that totally transformed a border town and brought growth and life in a place mostly written off is a reminder- it’s easy to lose hope; it’s easy to say all is lost; but there is still a way to reach across borders and plant hope and believe that change is possible in small and big ways. I needed that this month. I needed to reminded of hope with teeth and muscle in the face of what seems like endless suffering and exploitation; that gardens can grow and land can be watered. Really good-really thought-provoking; really important.
Storming the Wall is from 2017, so some things already feel dated; I feel like so much has happened in the past three years and we know so much more about Trump. What this book is about is how climate change is inextricably linked to our border policies. Climate refugees are real, and we are exploiting other countries and then militarizing our borders to deny access to resources gained through that exploitation. Instead of investing in climate solutions, we are investing in keeping more people out, which pushes people further into poverty and death. It’s brutal. The look at some of these crossings and WHY people cross is gut-wrenching but this context is incredibly important.
I will also give the author this; he ends on a hopeful note- a note I needed about how people can revitalize borders and bring growth to barren soil. This story he tells about these people who basically built a garden that totally transformed a border town and brought growth and life in a place mostly written off is a reminder- it’s easy to lose hope; it’s easy to say all is lost; but there is still a way to reach across borders and plant hope and believe that change is possible in small and big ways. I needed that this month. I needed to reminded of hope with teeth and muscle in the face of what seems like endless suffering and exploitation; that gardens can grow and land can be watered. Really good-really thought-provoking; really important.
January 18, 2022
Miller uses surface level analysis and hyperbolic language to investigate what is otherwise the most pressing humanitarian, environmental, and security threat of our time. He is correct to say "hypervigilance" and "permanent anxiety" form the foundation of the modern homeland security state, but he failed to provide a substantial alternative framework to "absolute state sovereignty over environmental decisions" (211).
The modern realist perspective used to understand security problems is largely inadequate for identifying and explaining the links between environmental change and conflict, which Miller notes. Realism focuses on states as rational maximizers of power in an anarchic system; state behavior is mainly a function of the structure of power relations in the system. But this emphasis on states means that theorists tend to see the world as divided into territorially distinct, mutually exclusive countries, not broader environmental regions or systems. Miller correctly suggests interstate cooperation to solve transnational ecological challenges, but "halting the further fortification of borders" isn't an adequate (or particularly original) prescription.
Nonetheless, the book's emphasis on the increasing lethality of the "booming border security market" (125) in drought-stricken areas of Central America was fascinating, and I was moved by the letter dedicated to his son at the end. I wish he had written more about grassroot climate activism in countries outside of the Philippines and Honduras, but these examples provided a good overview. This book is a good primer before studying the overlap among climate, migration, and security.
pages 17, 40, 64, 68, 112, 118, 162, 211, 221, 228
The modern realist perspective used to understand security problems is largely inadequate for identifying and explaining the links between environmental change and conflict, which Miller notes. Realism focuses on states as rational maximizers of power in an anarchic system; state behavior is mainly a function of the structure of power relations in the system. But this emphasis on states means that theorists tend to see the world as divided into territorially distinct, mutually exclusive countries, not broader environmental regions or systems. Miller correctly suggests interstate cooperation to solve transnational ecological challenges, but "halting the further fortification of borders" isn't an adequate (or particularly original) prescription.
Nonetheless, the book's emphasis on the increasing lethality of the "booming border security market" (125) in drought-stricken areas of Central America was fascinating, and I was moved by the letter dedicated to his son at the end. I wish he had written more about grassroot climate activism in countries outside of the Philippines and Honduras, but these examples provided a good overview. This book is a good primer before studying the overlap among climate, migration, and security.
pages 17, 40, 64, 68, 112, 118, 162, 211, 221, 228
March 23, 2023
Overall, I thoroughly appreciated this book and would read it again as well as recommend it to someone interested in climate change, specifically how politics are involved. I appreciated the great amount of data, statistics, quotes, and overall research that went into creating this book. I was surprised to see that Todd Miller was able to use quotes from government and military officials to help prove his point. In addition to the logos and ethos that Miller used, I was intrigued by the pathos he incorporated as well. He spoke in a way that makes readers feel united and that everybody in the World needs to work together to solve this issue.
However, I would like to mention that this is one of the few complaints I had about the book. I think Miller does a great job at outlining the problem and motivating readers to help look for a solution, but he does not list any concrete solutions. In order to solve a problem this large, with billions of dollars and millions of military personnel invested, a viable solution should have been proposed. Instead, Miller suggests that we should protest or go back to doing things the old and traditional way.
All in all, I thought the book was good and it brought to my attention some of the topics that I thought I knew about and had not looked further into. This book not only looks into climate change but also politics. I did not think this book was too “hard” to read because it excluded any complex vocabulary authors use to make themselves sound more credible, which I appreciated.
However, I would like to mention that this is one of the few complaints I had about the book. I think Miller does a great job at outlining the problem and motivating readers to help look for a solution, but he does not list any concrete solutions. In order to solve a problem this large, with billions of dollars and millions of military personnel invested, a viable solution should have been proposed. Instead, Miller suggests that we should protest or go back to doing things the old and traditional way.
All in all, I thought the book was good and it brought to my attention some of the topics that I thought I knew about and had not looked further into. This book not only looks into climate change but also politics. I did not think this book was too “hard” to read because it excluded any complex vocabulary authors use to make themselves sound more credible, which I appreciated.
September 28, 2020
The world of a surveillance state - long prophesised by climate activists - is already here, and it didn't require the catastrophe of runaway climate change to bring it into being. As the number of climate refugees intensifies over the coming decades, a certainty even in the unlikely event of a rapid and immediate clampdown on global emissions, they will be confronted with a world system of highly militarised border regimes that were cheered on by political centrists long before the populist right were obliged to.
One of the most insightful sections of the book is an examination of the internal American refugee crisis resulting from the 1930s Dust Bowl, where the effects of Depression collided with droughts to push 'migrants' out from across the Southwest - where they were scorned for 'vagrancy' and refused access to housing and employment. The natural state of a politics in liberal capitalism is to retreat to borders and policing, whether against its own citizens or the foreigners, in a bid to protect resources - and we can expect a great deal more of it before long.
Nice and cheerful reading as always.
One of the most insightful sections of the book is an examination of the internal American refugee crisis resulting from the 1930s Dust Bowl, where the effects of Depression collided with droughts to push 'migrants' out from across the Southwest - where they were scorned for 'vagrancy' and refused access to housing and employment. The natural state of a politics in liberal capitalism is to retreat to borders and policing, whether against its own citizens or the foreigners, in a bid to protect resources - and we can expect a great deal more of it before long.
Nice and cheerful reading as always.
December 15, 2020
If you are interested in the real and drastic effects climate change has on others, I would highly recommend this book. It goes highly in-depth with issues that those trying to migrate have with borders between countries and homeland security. It shares personal stories of the author and other people he has come in contact with. Many of these personal stories give great insight into some of the many problems people are going through because of climate change. It also discusses how decisions in politics affect both homeland security at the borders and climate refugees, including information about the Trump and Obama administrations. The only bad thing I have to say about this book is that it can get highly repetitive at times despite the different information it provides. While the statistics and facts are different, they still lead to almost the exact same conclusion and it can make the reading feel pretty slow sometimes.
February 15, 2021
This book was very informative on our current world issues of climate change, migration, and homeland security. I think it is important for all people to read about these topics and the effects they are taking upon our current day society. The author adds an abundant amount of statistics to back up his claims throughout the book. By giving the reader these statistics they are able to imagine and grasp the concepts that they are being presented with by Miller. Miller also adds many examples and real-life stories of the issues being played out in real-time. On the contrary, I think the author could have presented them in a more engaging way to the reader. Some parts just seemed to drag on longer than was necessary. I do think overall that this book was an important read; it introduced me to important issues that people are experiencing right now in time.
July 15, 2019
Very relevant read as 21st-century climate policy everywhere will continue to entail the type of cruel, racist, intrusive, and lucrative militarization we're observing at the US-Mexico border. Some of the author's self-insertion blunts the impact of his reporting, particularly when he riffs vaguely to contrast grassroots activism against undefined elites, but Miller's absolutely on point when discussing the main topic of border racialization and industrialization.
I found the chapter dedicated to Tacloban in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan a bit simplistic but refreshing: you don't see much climate change coverage discussing the intersection of climate with (neo-)colonialism and neoconservatism. Would like to read more on that angle.
I found the chapter dedicated to Tacloban in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan a bit simplistic but refreshing: you don't see much climate change coverage discussing the intersection of climate with (neo-)colonialism and neoconservatism. Would like to read more on that angle.
January 5, 2018
A lot of people are going to die not just because of the climate disruptions we've caused, but because of the blatant & contradictory hatred infesting U.S. border security. Todd Miller explores the impulses to keep out immigrants and our tendency to treat them as scum. The question that never seems to be asked is why Latinos keep trying to cross the border when its perfectly obvious a lot of people don't want them here; why no one considers that as bad as they're hated here, life in their home country is a hell of a lot worse. At times depressing, there are glimmers of hope in the power of collective action.
December 2, 2019
It was a really great book to be sure, but there were large segments where it seemed to refer more to other folks' work than to develop its own argument. I think Storming the Wall was at its best as a journalistic account, following individuals in Guatemala, Paris, and the Philippines. There were times when its connective tissue ended up a bit too reliant on others' work, for my taste, than really connecting these individuals' stories. I should probably put in the HUGE CAVEAT that I read this while suck in a huge post-Thanksgiving travel delay so I may not have been in a great mood. That might affect its rating subconsciously. But its a really valuable book!
December 30, 2019
This book has a lot of important topics to discuss on the impact of global warming, and relays them well throughout. It does suffer, however, with clarity of ideas with lack of a good copy editor in the writing and allows for many typos (particularly towards the unattended ending chapters of the book) that take away from understanding. But overall a powerful call for better use of resources and transformation to face our globe's climate crisis and to embrace our interconnectedness among all people.
March 26, 2018
A stunning book about the intersection of global climate change and the increase in militarized borders to force people to stay in place. Climate change is forcing people to move to other places but now more than 70 countries have erected walls to keep people out. In 1990 there were only 3 countries with such walls when the Berlin Wall fell. Miller details the rise of the militarized state to protect the rich and suppress the poor who suffer from the impacts of pollution and carbon emissions.
June 22, 2020
A strong start but it became repetitive. He is convinced that there is a 'borderisation' (my word) of policing - but it is simply governments giving themselves powers and reducing accountability. The main point of this book, that climate change is resulting in more militarised borders, often enforced far from the physical border, is valid and well argued. But it became a bit auto-biographical and whiney.
February 13, 2024
I read this book because I wanted to learn more about the relationship between climate change and refugee crises, and this book was obviously a perfect choice for that - but I hadn't thought about it much from a national security / border militarization perspective, and those parts of the book were especially fascinating and totally unsettled me. This book made more more convinced than ever that we need to abolish our borders if we have any interest at all in surviving climate change.
November 1, 2018
A book that is both passionately written and well-researched is a rare combination, but Miller comprehensively details how climate change is at the root of migration and militarization. Although this conclusion should come as no surprise, the degree (pun not intended) to which it is already coming to pass is surprising and deeply troubling.
November 26, 2022
Critical reading for the securitisation of the forthcoming decades. When first published “An average of 21.5 million people were displaced every year between 2008 and 2015 from the ‘impact and threat of climate-related hazards.’” One can only imagine this number has continued to rise since publication.
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