We're now seeing the first large-scale, environmentally related displacement of people in 70 years, ... And if we're not careful some of the social consequences may be similar to the last one.

People who were healthy enough to get up and walk out did.

A long and difficult settlement looms. For Houston or Baton Rouge, these are huge numbers of people for them. They are desperately poor, seriously depressed, lost individuals with nothing. They are going to be hard to absorb. It's an enormous burden for a city to take it on. After the shock and warmth and compassion wear off, these refugees are going to have to find a way to become new citizens in these new places.

These are going to be very long-lasting changes in America, ... The people who are leaving their homes, will take years to re-settle. The Gulf states are going to take years and years to rebuild. They won't be rebuilt in the same way. This is a permanent effect on American society.

Steinbeck has drought and dust in the wrong parts of Oklahoma, ... And some Oklahomans and Texans didn't like the rather primitive image he created of the Joads. They felt, with some justification, it propounded an Okie stereotype.

This today is the most massive crisis migration, except perhaps the Civil War, in American history.