Shedding Light on Climate Refugees
The term “climate change” is beginning to appear more frequently with each day. It is a phrase of self explanatory definition, but one that often fails to convey the magnitude of the issue. Whether or not you believe it to be a natural phenomenon or a hoax, humans continually contribute to global warming, and we, as a part of the developed nations’ population, are privileged enough to remain unaffected in our daily lives. We may not see the consequences, but our carbon emissions, our non-reusable plastic water bottles and the light that we keep on in our rooms, are all creating severe droughts in Somalia, floods in Bangladesh and typhoons in Myanmar.
It’s a bold statement, but one that I stand by. Extreme temperatures caused by global warming increase the likelihood of climate-related disasters. Catastrophes such as the current drought in the Androy Region of Madagascar, which has lead to acute malnutrition of 1.3 million children, is just one of many tragedies. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that since 2009, one person has been displaced by a disaster each second, averaging to 22.5 million climate refugees and migrants since 2008. To put it into perspective, that number is approximately 4.5 times greater than the number of refugees displaced by the crisis in Syria.
You don’t have to believe in climate change to acknowledge that people are dying all across the world from climate-related disasters.
You don’t have to believe in climate change to acknowledge that people are dying all across the world from climate-related disasters. The 1.3 million children in Madagascar may not be suffering as a direct result of failing to recycle that one piece of paper, but climate change is as real as a father hoping to sell off his 10-year-old daughter in hopes of guaranteeing her a meal for the first time in days. Climate change is as real as children waddling with swollen bellies, inflated by a protein deficiency or a lack of food at all. Most can agree that increase of carbon dioxide fuels what we know as global warming, but where debate occurs is whether this change is caused by humans through carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. I am not here to argue the science of global warming or its causes. (That is saved for a later op-ed or for dinner discussions in the dining hall, but disagreeing over the science and facts does nothing to acknowledge or fix the many problems that are a result of climate change.)
Climate by definition is the long term average of weather in a number of years, and it is shaped by global forces in our atmosphere. A change in energy balances results in a change in our climate, and this can be caused by a tilt in the earth's axis, the amount of sunlight the earth reflects back to space and the concentration of greenhouse gases in the air—the most relative today. The short term fluctuations of climate result in our weather, which is the state of an atmosphere at a specific place and time. These are less predictable and conditions can differ drastically in the same week, explaining why it can spike from two degrees on a Monday to 50 degrees on a Thursday. It is true that not all natural disasters are caused by climate change, but around 50 percent of all natural disasters can be directly linked to climate change as of 2015.
The growing concern of environmental migrants is the need for an action plan. The world recognizes that 22,773 people died and 98.6 million people were affected by a weather induced disaster alone in 2015, yet as an international community we spend less than .5 percent of the global aid budget preventing and alleviating the damages of natural disasters. What needs to be done is risk assessment and building of infrastructure in developing countries like Bangladesh or Myanmar where catastrophe often strikes. Japan has suffered from severe disasters of its own, but smaller typhoons that cause simple disruption in Japan can entirely destroy communities in the Philippines where buildings aren't built sustainably.
Climate change deniers and environmentalists can find common ground by recognizing that people are suffering from the repercussions of our warming planet.
They are forced to watch their homes ravaged by violent waters and winds, leave the only places they have ever known and eat cactus flowers as their only viable food source. Whether or not you choose to claim responsibility and reassess your life choices, is your decision.