Climate change has many catastrophic effects to it that we hear about every single day varying from melting glaciers, sea level rise, crop failure and water scarcity. A topic not widely known and discussed is the issue of climate change being a driving factor for the forced migration of families around the world. In a world bank report, it is estimated that by 2050 as many as 143 million people will be displaced due to climate change. This report also states that the most affected regions are sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Climate refugees have many different identifying names including, environmental refugees, eco-migrants, environmental migrants and environmental displacements.
Climate change is no longer just an environmental burden. It does not just affect the environment, but now affects every part of our daily lives. From the stability of our economies to our health, and to where we live. Climate change creates for extremes in weather patterns and causes for more frequent and severe environmental disasters. The most startling data out there, is the fact that if every human on planet earth lived as Americans do, five planet Earths would be required to be able to support everyone. Desert expansion and sea level rise are forcing people out of their homes, and driving them to migrate and find refuge somewhere else. Environmental refugees are described as “people who either have or will be migrating because of some environmental disaster that makes their country, or part of it, less habitable” (Cairns, 2010).
Current numbers on these refuges are relatively small, but not small enough for them to be ignored. At the rate were at with climate change right now, environmental refugees are going to drastically increase. The number of people migrating to what they hope will be better for them and their families is going to keep increasing as climate change worsens. Climate change factors are global, and environmental migration will eventually affect everyone globally to some degree. The world’s top economies and top polluting nations are not adequately taking active steps in reducing their emissions. We as humanity are inching towards facing a point of no return when it comes to climate change. A recent U.N. report states that “global greenhouse gas emissions need to start falling by 7.6 percent each year, starting by next year” (Tharoor, 2019). This goal is currently nowhere in sight as majority of countries are not taking the proper leadership and dedication on climate change.
Unfortunately, the nations that are contributing the most to climate change are not the ones having to deal with the heavy burden of it. The most common way to figure out what nations have the greatest climate changing emissions, is to compare the Carbon Dioxide emissions. Adding up all the fossil fuels burned and produce in each nation allows us to figure out who are the top leaders in emissions. Some of the top emitters of CO2 emissions are China, United States, India, Russia and Japan. The problem with only focusing purely on CO2 emissions from burning fossils fuels though, is that it ignores the other greenhouse gasses and non-fossil-fuel sources of CO2. When these other fuel sources are included the top emitters change slightly, the top emitters being China, United States, Brazil, Indonesia and Russia. These countries have little to no concern with reducing their polluting habits and emissions. They are more concerned with industrialization and economic gain than the harm that they are causing the planet.
Currently we are exploiting our resources in a way that is not intergenerationally equitable. At the rate we are at right now we are not acting out of fairness or justice between generations. Current generations are not using resources in a sustainable way for future generations to not be harmed by us. We are heading towards a depletion of our natural resources and are not maintaining an ecological balance. The depletion of our nonrenewable resources is occurring because these substances are being used up more quickly than they can replace themselves. Many people do not understand that these resources are finite. When we incorporate climate refugees into the picture of allowing them into new nations, most citizens that are originally accepting of them, do not realize that resources in their nation will become diminished more quickly. Since people cannot easily visualize for themselves the resources that are being consumed nationally, let alone resources that would be consumed by new climate refugees, they cannot fully understand the damage that is being done. Global climate change is also affecting agricultural and natural resource productivity. This creates for the carrying capacity and nations to be significantly reduced, and as long as global climate change continues, it will continue to be reduced. Many effects of climate change are irreversible, we cannot rewind on our mistakes, all we can do is to slow down and hopefully pause these changes from occurring.
Currently, there is no international agreement on who should be qualified as an environmental refugee or even a plan on how to manage this growing crisis. The problem is that no one country wants to take accountability for this issue, it is hard for countries to come to a consensus. The UN has been holding negotiations on the Global Climate Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees. These compacts were both first proposed in 2016 and there was hope for international agreement to be made. Migration researchers and advocates were supposed to provide a platform for new international policies on climate refugees. Most nations currently are not readily equipped to be able to host and take in climate refugees. Nations will not be able to provide food, housing, medical care, jobs, or other services that the millions of environmental migrants will need. An ideal host country for climate refugees should have surplus of the resources and services stated above along with no ecological deficit. This ideal situation is not very common and such an inviting situation is not likely. Nations that are already struggling with not having a surplus of resources and services are already in grave danger. With the addition of environmental migrants these nations will be in even more danger than they already are. Most nations cannot handle and are not prepared to cope with mass environmental migration. Most citizens, especially of developed countries, assume because they are living comfortably that they are equipped with enough surplus of resources and supplies within their nation to be able to take in and help others, but that is often not the case. Climate change international organizations are beginning to call attention to the victims of global warming. In a recent study, the humanitarian group Oxfam calculated that on average, more than twenty million people were displaced by extreme weather events each year in the past decade. “Today you are seven times more likely to be internally displaced by cyclones, floods and wildfires than by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and tree times more likely than by conflict” (Oxfam, 2019). The definitive scale number of climate refuges cannot be easily calculated, but an estimated forecast of the number of environmental migrants by 2050 could range from 140 million to as many as 1 billion people. In a study by Save the Children, they concluded that “in east and southern Africa this year, floods, landslides, drought and cyclones contributed to at least 33 million people in the region—or 10% of the population across ten countries—being at emergency levels of food insecurity or worse. That number includes more than 16 million children” (Save the Children, 2019).
The issues of refugees in general has been a long discussed issue across nations for centuries now. Nations that are willing to accept and take in immigrants are deemed as noble, but there is loss there that is to be accounted for. People who are against accepting an immigrant into their nation notes that an individual may be moral for doing it as the individual suffers no immediate loss, but a loss is suffered by the entirety of the nation. People that seem to be for the acceptance of refugees have been asked the question of if an immigrant were to be accepted into their nation, would that person be willing to give up their citizenship in order for that immigrant to be able to be accepted into their country? Where would these people then go if they give up their citizenship? The choice then becomes selfish in order to protect their own citizenship, these people would no longer be as accepting of refugees. In short, this is unethical as the citizens and nations that are causing climate change and are the driving factors of these climate refugees having to find new homes, we morally ought to do something to help and protect these people. The issue of climate migrants has been invisible to the public for many years on the migration and climate debates. Government officials and political leaders are unlikely to actively discuss and advocate for anti-immigration as it would be harm their elected positions status.
Unfortunately, in the United States we currently have a President who is a massive climate skeptic. The United States is one of the top polluting countries in the world, being one of the world’s biggest industrial and commercial power. We as a nation contribute a lot of emissions of greenhouse gasses that are main causes of climate change and global warming. The Trump administration has already set about getting rid of environmental protections and regulations. Trumps disregard for climate change and greenhouse gas emissions has caused for 2019 to be a record year in global greenhouse gas emissions. The United States’ alone, energy related CO2 emissions have risen 2.7 percent from last year. This is due to the Trump admins removal of climate regulations that used to be implemented. Trump is removing us from the Paris Climate accord and rejects any climate change action. President Trump is now being labeled as an enabler of ecocide, which is the willful destruction of the natural environment. Luckily, majority of the citizens in the United States do not have the same views on Climate Change as President Trump does and our actively trying to do something about it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a recent statement that “This is a matter of public health…of our children, of the survival of our economies, of the prosperity of the world, of national security, justice and equality. We now must deliver deeper cuts in emissions” (Pelosi, 2019). Not only has Pelosi recognized that something needs to be done, House Democrats have recognized and put forward legislation that would create a federal program. This program would take in a minimum of 50,000 climate refugees every year in the United States. Unfortunately, the Trump administration will never let this pass while he is in office. The Trump administration has already reduced United States refugee resettlement to record-low levels. The Trump administration’s hostility to climate change and migrants has gone on for too long.
The only way we can fix this problem of climate refugees is to firmly implement sustainable practices. As the implications of climate change create for climate refugee, becoming more sustainable and slowing down climate change is what is needed for future generations of all nations to be able to live in a life of no fear that they will be forced to retreat to avoid the effects of climate change. If we lived more sustainably on Earth, each nation would be able to keep their own citizens within their borders and the idea of climate refugees would no longer be an issue, but when we ignore what we are doing to our planet, it creates for more issues in the long run. When we ignore the issues at hand we are disregarding the inevitable of living people to suffer.
Whatever the number is, the crisis of climate refugees is apparent and happening. We all have an ethical and moral responsibility to do something about this. The era of using cheap fossil fuels in abundance to provide energy is over. The way that humankind decides to act in the next few years will determine the level of impact we will have. If we fail to act strongly and immediately, climate change, food shortages, population growth and environmental migrants will all continue to increase. If unsustainable practices are continued, humankind will fail. Death and suffering will quickly worsen and there will be no future generations, there will be nowhere left to retreat and find refuge.