3Imbalances : when climate change threatens life

These changes disrupt ecosystems, jeopardise livelihoods, and transform the ways of life of human communities that are closely connected to nature. However, climate is never the sole cause of departure. It combines with pre-existing economic, social, or political crises. Migration always results from a complex interplay of factors.

Although human populations are affected unevenly, the impacts of climate change are visible everywhere: in Vendée, Mayotte, Greenland, Louisiana, South Sudan, or the Mekong Valley. The exhibition presents testimonies that convey the scale of disasters or the gradual degradation of the environment, sometimes making it uninhabitable. These experiences, lived very differently depending on the relationship communities maintain with the natural elements, express both the pain of loss and the courage to adapt, resist, or leave. In this context, public debate is often heated, polarising migration issues and favouring striking images over a deeper understanding of underlying causes.

In France, climate change is gradually threatening the habitability of certain areas. Rising sea levels are accelerating coastal erosion. The retreat of the shoreline is leading to the submersion of areas whose homes and activities must be relocated. Other regions are experiencing more droughts, heatwaves, or extreme events, such as storms made more intense by the combined effects of ocean warming and increased atmospheric humidity.

In response to these events, residents seek to understand what is happening to them, to learn lessons from the past, and to build for the future. This is the case in Vendée after Storm Xynthia (2010), or in Mayotte after the passage of Cyclone Chido and Storm Dikeledi (2024–2025).

In southern Louisiana, Isle de Jean Charles is gradually disappearing beneath the sea. It is being eroded by hurricanes, coastal erosion, and rising sea levels, direct consequences of climate disruption. At the same time, land subsidence is intensifying due to several decades of oil extraction.

In 2016, the last inhabitants of the island received federal assistance to be relocated 70 km further north. Presented as a model for responding to climate-related displacement, the project raises tensions. The majority Indigenous community, the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation, denounces its exclusion from decision-making and the loss of control over its ancestral lands.

South Sudan is one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in the world. Droughts and extreme flooding are devastating crops. Residents are forced to leave in search of resources elsewhere, often moving into areas inhabited by other communities where food is also scarce. Conflicts also arise between herders and farmers over access to water.

Environmental degradation is worsening tensions in a country already weakened by years of civil war.

Updated 2024 data indicate that more than 4 million people have been displaced, about half of them within the country. In neighboring countries, vast refugee camps have been established. These camps are among the most populous in the world. The Bidi Bidi refugee settlement in Uganda hosts nearly 240,000 people.

In Vietnam, the Mekong Delta is being affected by rising sea levels, a problem compounded by land subsidence. This phenomenon is accompanied by coastal erosion and the salinization of water and soils, a process accelerated by droughts. In this monsoon region, floods have traditionally been regarded as valuable resources for fishing and agriculture. Today, however, rising waters are disrupting local ecosystems and threatening to submerge parts of the delta.

The construction of numerous dams upstream, particularly in China and Laos, has also become a major concern, as it reduces the flow of freshwater and blocks the sediments that are essential for maintaining the fertility of agricultural land. Environmental changes, combined with socio-economic and cultural factors, are driving significant migration flows, especially toward the metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City.

In the media, migration and climate change are often portrayed in similar ways: through powerful images that are sometimes stereotypical or alarming, designed to evoke emotion rather than encourage critical reflection. These images attract attention and may motivate some people to take action, but they often oversimplify reality.

This reductive approach makes it more difficult to understand the underlying causes of these issues and the connections between them. It also hinders the development of collective political responses at the international level, even though such responses are essential. A new discourse known as eco-borderism portrays migrants as an ecological threat, overlooking the fact that they are often among the first victims of climate change. Moreover, because many migrants live in poverty, their environmental impact is generally far lower than that of wealthier, more sedentary populations.