Let’s start this off with the most pressing numbers in my mind presented by Foresight, the CMCC observatory on climate policies and futures:
There are currently 64 million forced migrants in the world fleeing wars, hunger, persecution and a growing force: climate change. UN forecasts estimate that there could be anywhere between 25 million and 1 billion environmental migrants by 2050. Understanding the climate change-migration nexus will prove instrumental in addressing our current climate emergency.
[https://www.climateforesight.eu/…/environmental-migrants-u…/]
Did that say 1 billion people will become environmental migrants by the year 2050? Furthermore, John Podesta, founder for the Center for America progress wrote in a report on ‘The Climate Crisis, Migration and Refugees’:
This global challenge has and will continue to create a multitude
of critical issues that the international community must confront, including:
• Large-scale human migration due to resource scarcity, increased frequency of extreme weather events, and other factors, particularly in the developing countries in the earth’s low latitudinal band;
• Intensifying intra- and inter-state competition for food, water, and other resources, particularly in the Middle
East and North Africa;
• Increased frequency and severity of disease outbreaks;
• Increased U.S. border stress due to the severe effects of climate change in parts of Central America;
[https://www.brookings.edu/…/07/Brookings_Blum_2019_climate.…] (.pdf)
Yet the United States and its failed, strongman leadership has all but ignored the climate problem, framing it from the beginning of its administration as a hoax, deleting all references to climate change in its online publications:
Given the oversize role that migration plays in our current political discourse, you’d think there would be more emphasis on the one factor military and security experts believe will affect future migration patterns more than any other: climate change.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan agency that analyzes and audits federal policy to ensure its efficiency and cost-effectiveness, isn’t going to let the topic go unaddressed.
In a report to Congress last week, the GAO criticized the manner in which the Trump administration has sought to remove any acknowledgement of climate change from our foreign policy and diplomatic strategies, keeping experts in the dark about an issue that’s growing only more urgent as a shifting climate—and all that comes with it—displaces millions of people and disrupts societies across the globe.
[https://www.nrdc.org/…/climate-change-already-driving-mass-…]
This failure hampers America’s ability to deal with this policy crisis which will affect every aspect of our nation, from commerce to military preparedness in the decades to come. All of these challenges are serious, but the scope and scale of human migration due to climate change will test the limits of
national and global governance as well as international cooperation. The migration-climate nexus is real, but more scrutiny and action are required.
Climate disasters are happening around the planet with the ever-increasing storms, temperature extremes and increasing food precarity, the inevitability of climate migration will happen all over the world.
Climate migration was thought to be a problem which happened only in the poorest nations on Earth. However, as the problem is being studied, the truth of this is becoming more apparent: Climate migration is happening everywhere and increasing as the severity of weather conditions, economic and social disparity increases and the erosion of the underlying social infrastructures (insufficient housing, economic disparity, insufficient funding due to an inadequate tax base) exacerbates the problem.
Chronic conditions of already existing homelessness featuring the economically displaced, the mentally ill, and the socially outcast already affect almost every nation, and as the seasonal weather conditions of extreme heat and cold, regional and seasonal flooding, as well as the numerical preponderance of thunderstorms (which cause fires) tornadoes which destroy homes, and hurricanes which raise river levels, bring storm surges and flood out vast regions batter areas all over the United States every year making them less habitable and less capable of supporting life.
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is an ongoing tropical cyclone season. So far, it has featured a total of 21 tropical cyclones, 20 tropical storms, eight hurricanes, and two major hurricanes. With 20 named storms, it is the second most active Atlantic hurricane season on record, tied with the 1933 Atlantic hurricane season, and behind only the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The season officially started on June 1 and will officially end on November 30. — Wikipedia
This is not uniquely an American problem as reported by Yonhap news agency, flooding in Korea from a monsoon season which has lasted fifty days straight, (almost setting a new record) continues to flood out entire cities. Flooding and landslides due to prolonged monsoon continue to wreak havoc across the Korean Peninsula, prompting almost 7,000 people to evacuate and leaving at least 42 dead or missing in the South as of August 9, 2020. 4,600 people remain at temporary shelters. The scope of damage in North Korea has not been able to be confirmed but cropland and over 1,000 homes may have been damaged or destroyed during the season.
Almost a third of Bangladesh, India was underwater earlier this year, drenched by heavy monsoon rains. This transformation was so extreme, it was visible from satellites in orbit. Bangladesh has been hit by severe floods since early July 2020. Unusual heavy rainfall has inundated the major Brahmaputra River that runs through Tibet, India and Bangladesh flooding the homes of 2.4 million people in the region. Authorities predict water levels on the river will continue to rise until July 26, before conditions start to improve.
As a nation, we have already failed to deal with the challenges of chronic homelessness and we have one of the lowest homeless populations in the civilized world. What does the future of climate migration look like around the world and how will the United States, not known for its tolerance regarding immigration and its adherence to the concepts of rugged individualism, respond to conditions which are sure to change the way of life for millions in the United States? Are there sufficient resources or federal and state agencies tasked with these future challenges?
Should FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) be redesigned to work beyond just immediate emergency issues and begin to analyse and consult on changes in the viability of regions prone to climate disasters and discuss with local governments the idea of helping citizens move to new regions, resettling them before disasters force them out of their homes and making their movement more random and far more expensive to individuals and society at large?
What’s your opinion on this subject? What would you tackle first? Is this a local government issue or should state and federal agencies be working to organize and prepare for the inevitable transformation of the American landscape as temperature extremes and seasonal storms make the Gulf coast more uninhabitable every year?
Listen to the discussion here:
OTHER REFERENCES:
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THE GREAT CLIMATE MIGRATION
A comprehensive analysis of climate migration worldwide
https://www.nytimes.com/…/23/magazine/climate-migration.html
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Japan floods: 155 killed after torrential rain and landslides (12,000 homeless, 2 million affected)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44775627
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Longest monsoon in 33 years batters Korean Peninsula, leaving scores dead and 7,000 homeless
https://watchers.news/…/12/korea-longest-monsoon-since-1987/
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Millions Suffer Amid Flood Crisis in Bangladesh (video)
https://youtu.be/GFm1CNeiGuk
Hurricane Sally Floods Pensacola Florida (video)
https://youtu.be/UHqgmEkorEY
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CLIMATE CHANGE BY THE ELEMENTS
(Now with Coronavirus)
A podcast in association with the The Good Men Project
Today, September 17, 2020 @ 5:00 PDT, 8:00 EDT
SEPTEMBER SERIES: CLIMATE MIGRATION
A four episode series discussing the impending threat of, statistics, challenges, and inevitability of climate migration. A climate or environmental migrant is a person who is forced to leave their home region (most likely permanently) due to sudden or long-term changes to their local environment.
These are changes which compromise their well-being or secure livelihood. Such changes are held to include increased droughts, desertification, sea level rise, and disruption of seasonal weather patterns. Climate refugees may choose to flee to or migrate to another country, or they may migrate internally within their own country.
Join our call tonight at 5:00 PM Pacific, 8:00 PM Eastern.
Bring a friend.
Led by: Thaddeus Howze and Carol Bluestein
Produced by: Lisa Hickey
Call-In: (701) 801-1220
Access code: 934-317-242
OR – join by computer!
https://join.startmeeting.com/934317242
(make sure to choose ‘use computer audio’)
———————————-
CLIMATE CHANGE BY THE ELEMENTS
Join our call tonight at 5:00 PM Pacific, 8:00 PM Eastern.
Bring a friend.
Led by: Thaddeus Howze and Carol Bluestein
Call-In: (701) 801-1220
Access code: 934-317-242
OR – join by computer!
https://join.startmeeting.com/934317242
(make sure to choose ‘use computer audio’)
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