Take immigration. As equatorial regions grow hotter and drier, climate-driven migration will accelerate. Pressures at the southern border, already a defining political issue, will intensify as millions are pushed north by forces no wall can stop.
Or look at rural and agricultural economies. The United States is getting hotter, drier, and more volatile. Across much of the Midwest and South, the crops that anchor red-state economies—corn, soy, wheat, and cotton—are already experiencing regional yield losses from intensifying heat and drought. At the same time, the administration’s war on clean energy has stalled billions of dollars in investment in the very states that stood to benefit most. In 2025 alone, more than 24,000 jobs and nearly $20 billion in clean‑energy projects in Republican districts were canceled or abandoned.