The Black Belt lost over 40,000 residents from 1998 to 2018, and that trend has been going on forever. Black farmers started fleeing after the Civil War due to violent racism, then huge numbers left during the World Wars for the army or cash-paying jobs in nearby or distant cities, then many more left with the post-WWII industrialization and diversification of agriculture (chemical herbicides deteriorated the physical integrity of the land so much that the most stubborn black family farmers had to leave), and people are still leaving due to persistent issues such as hospital closures and lack of broadband access. There's no opportunities, bad infrastructure, no will to invest in the region, and no signs of the depopulation reversing. If you think it's bad now, wait until the climate reaches a tipping point.
At the risk of asking an obvious question: what do you think would happen when climate reaches the tipping point?
