Climate change is causing people to move. They usually stay local, study finds

An ornamental palm tree stands in an empty field where there were once houses in Houston. A new study follows thousands of families across the country who sold their flood-prone homes to the government, to see where they moved. (Claire Harbage/NPR)

Most people who move because of climate change in the United States don't go far, and they end up in homes that are less threatened by the effects of global warming, according to new research. The findings underscore the degree to which climate-related relocation is a hyperlocal phenomenon that can nonetheless protect people from disasters such as floods and hurricanes.

Sociologists at Rice University studied thousands of homeowners who sold their extremely flood-prone homes to the government through a special federal program, administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The program has moved about 50,000 families out of flood zones since the 1980s, and demand for such federal buyouts is growing.