Revitalize | Resettle Hillary Brown Concluding Statement and Summary It is increasingly possible to see the coming wave of disruption less as a forfeiture and more as a win-win opportunity for many. It provides America a chance to reinvent where and how a portion of the climate-displaced can find refuge, namely in strategically revitalized towns across America that are rebuilding their local economies around regional resources using the expertise and social capital of current and new populations. The exemplars will be those that have adopted a new paradigm for economic and infrastructural advancement by emulating the closed-loop circular model of natural systems. At once holistic, economical and equitable, this arrangment develops reciprocalities across the settlement’s sectors - its energy, water, agriculture, forestry, transport, telecommunications, sanitation, and waste management. In this way, circularity leverages synergies, keeps resources and energy production and use local, while reducing or eliminating waste and pollution. Following this approach, rural settlements, given the benefit of their small-scale and close social bonds, will become ideal laboratories of innovation, testing smart solutions that can be scaled to cities. In this way, willing communities can transform themselves into resilient and appealing receiving resettlements. They can attract newcomers who can further invigorate their social and economic institutions. But this notion is only really viable when these two imperatives - rural regeneration and resettlement of the displaced - are planned for well in advance and simultaneously, not with last-ditch efforts in the context of a crisis. Preparation must take the form of transdisciplinary, cross-sectional, and especially cross-jurisdictional efforts. Planning and implementation must be driven by public, private, and civil capabilities. Crucially as well, these initiatives should be owned by local community members themselves. In sum, what is imperative is the scaling of local preemptive preparation versus reactive and chaotic relocation. As the crisis that will define the rest of this century and beyond, an altered climate will threaten coastal and inland areas. It will likely cast out populations, prompting migration at a scale unimaginable today. To accommodate exponentially larger waves of people in the more climate secure settlements, we will need to retrofit and renew many others. Even if properly planned as advocated here, such locations will nonetheless be a punishing, complex, and challenging process. Such a national endeavor will be massively costly. Rural areas, towns, and small cities can and should be part of the solution, and to date they are the most overlooked option. However, today there is a margin of opportunity to begin with the present infusion of government agency funding, followed by funds that will need to be substantially enhanced. We also need to realize that, ….”the 2020s are the last chance to put forward-thinking, sustainable, equitable policies, programs, and practices into place that can turn climate migration into an opportunity with a viable adaptation choice.” That opportunity entails living more densely and cooperatively in smaller places so that we fuel and feed our lifestyles with minimal carbon footprints. While such action starts with community buy-in, it will require transformative thinking at the private, non-profit, state, local, and federal level. It relies on a commitment of national action at a scale least comparable to the building of the interstate highway system. The alternative would be climate rendered chaos. Successful preparations for climate migration may help us face the future with an authentic forward-facing response to the multiple challenges we face. Earnest planning along these lines must begin now. Podcast Interview