![About 3 million Americans are already "climate migrants," analysis finds. Here's where they left.](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2022/06/15/5f20309e-4d8e-4ce7-b7d5-4fce8562b9f9/thumbnail/1200x630/751042ac13dce3c09c1fc09882eacc8e/download.jpg?v=5382e209c94ee904b3a96a69f8ca0ce0)
About 3 million Americans are already "climate migrants," analysis finds. Here's where they left.
CBSN
Climate change is already forcing millions of people around the world to leave their homes to seek refuge from the rising seas, devastating droughts and the other effects of global warming. But that migration is also happening within the U.S. as extreme weather makes parts of the country virtually inhospitable, according to a new analysis.
About 3.2 million Americans have moved due to the mounting risk of flooding, the First Street Foundation said in a report that focuses on so-called "climate abandonment areas," or locations where the local population fell between 2000 and 2020 because of risks linked to climate change.
Many of those areas are in parts of the country that also have seen a surge of migration during the past two decades, including Sun Belt states such as Florida and Texas. Such communities risk an economic downward spiral as population loss causes a decline in property values and local services, the group found.
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As vaccination rates decline, widespread outbreaks of diseases like measles and polio could reemerge
Health officials in western Texas are trying to contain a measles outbreak among mostly school-aged children, with at least 15 confirmed cases. It's the latest outbreak of a disease that had been virtually eliminated in the U.S., and it comes as vaccination rates are declining — jeopardizing the country's herd immunity from widespread outbreaks.