CLIMATE REFUGEES ANTHOLOGY #2
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and
Ecology
https://Omnicenter.org/donate/
CLIMATE REFUGEES ANTHOLOGY #1 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/11/omni-climate-refugees-anthology-1.html
TEMPERATURE,
HEAT, CLIMATE CATASTROPHE Anthology #3, August 29, 2020.
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/08/omni-temperature-heat-climate.html
UNCCD
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification www.unccd.int
JUNE
17, 2021. https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/06/omni-celebrates-june-17-2021-unccd.html
UN
World Water Day, March 22
UN
World Oceans Day, June 8
UN World Refugee Day, June 20
CONTENTS
ARKANSAS
Two Aspects of Growth
USA
Megadrought
in US West
Katrina’s Climate Crimes
GLOBAL
The Crisis from 2007
Climate
Refugees in the Twenty-First Century (book)
IPCC’s Latest Assessment,
Slow-Motion Apocalypse
Pacific Islands Disappearing
350.org Report, Global Climate Strike
Storming
the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (book)
Trump v. Refugees
SOLUTIONS
Reparations
Increase Equality, Decrease Northern Consumption (book)
United Nations
SOURCES
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Center for American Progess Action
China Environment News
Christian Aid
Fairchild and Weinrub(book)
Green Left
Indiana UP
Inside Climate News
KUAF
Monthly Review, mronline.org
Progressive Magazine
350.org
TomDispatch
United Nations
TEXTS
ARKANSAS
Two
facets of the multifarious refugee debate in NWA from 2018 to 2024 that has not
yet grasped the REFUGEE future.
*Headlines from the KUAF Ozarks at Large
Anxiety Over High Density as Development
Pressure Grows in NWA May
28, 2018
One person's appropriate infill development
for a growing region is another person's anxiety about changing neighborhoods.
Residents in Fayetteville's Parksdale neighborhood recently found out their
portion of the city was zoned for multi-family residential development after a
three-story duplex went up in the area. They have started a petition to
downgrade the zoning in the neighborhood to keep most of the development to
single-family homes and two-story structures.
“Northwest Arkansas says send in the immigrants.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
(August 12, 2024).
A decline in
foreign workers could spell trouble for continued economic expansion in
Northwest Arkansas. Continue reading...
USA
“The parched West is heading into a global
warming-fueled megadrought that could last for centuries.” mronline.org (4-19-20).
Warmer
temperatures and shifting storm tracks are drying up vast stretches of land in
North and South America. | more…
Originally
published: Inside Climate News on April 16, 2020 by Bob Berwyn
(more by Inside
Climate News) | (Posted Apr 18,
2020). Climate Change, Environment, GeographyAmericasNewswire [This website no longer exists. Nor does the You Tube interview of the
author, or the Wikipedia entry. The
disappearance of the internet/worldwide web record seems to be a global
disaster little acknowledged. –Dick]
The American West is well on its way into
one of the worst megadroughts on record, a new study warns,
a dry period that could last for centuries and spread from Oregon and Montana,
through the Four Corners and into West Texas and northern Mexico.
Several other megadroughts, generally defined
as dry periods that last 20 years or more, have been documented in the West
going back to about 800 A.D. In the study, the researchers, using an extensive
tree-ring history, compared recent climate data with conditions during the
historic megadroughts.
They found that in this century, global
warming is tipping the climate scale toward an unwelcome rerun, with dry
conditions persisting far longer than at any other time since Europeans
colonized and developed the region. The study was published online Thursday and
appears in the April 17 issue of the journal Science.
Human-caused global warming is responsible for
about half the severity of the emerging megadrought in western North America,
said Jason Smerdon, a Columbia University climate researcher and a co-author of
the new research.
“What we’ve identified as the culprit is the
increased drying from the warming. The reality is that the drying from global
warming is going to continue,” he said.
We’re on a trajectory in keeping with the worst megadroughts of
the past millennia. . . .MORE click on title
Katrina’s Legacy: Genocidal Climate Crimes is the culmination of Eric Mann’s ten- year exploration and organizing in
support of the Black Nation in New Orleans. It is based on his revolutionary
theory and practice at the intersection of the Black, Third World, and Climate
Justice revolutions.
The
Legacy Of Katrina - Center for American Progress Action
https://www.americanprogressaction.org/progress-reports/the-legacy-of-katrina/
Aug 28, 2015 - Tomorrow marks ten years since
Hurricane Katrina's landfall in New Orleans. The storm
flattened entire communities, took the lives of 1,800 ...
Katrina's
Legacy: White Racism and Black Reconstruction in New ...
https://www.amazon.com/Katrinas-Legacy-Racism-Reconstruction.../0972126325
Katrina's Legacy: White Racism and Black
Reconstruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast [Eric Mann
Katrina's Legacy:
Still homeless after New Orleans hurricane hell
Lasting Legacy of JP2 by Katrina Zeno Katrina Zeno YouTube - Aug 23, 2013
Broken Levees, Broken Lives: Katrina's Healthcare
Legacy Calnurses YouTube - Aug 26, 2008
GLOBAL
From 2007 to present.
Human Tide:
the real migration crisis. Christian Aid report May 2007.
CONTENTS
The forced migration crisis 4 Internal displacement: the
hidden crisis 10 Climate change: outlook bleak 22 Colombia: conflict and
commerce 30 Burma: war, dams and power 36 Mali: heat, dust and climate change
41 Recommendations 46
A world struggling to cope with the largest enforced
movement of people in its history. Tens of millions displaced, living in
parlous conditions – their very futures threatened by the enormity of the
problem. That was the dire situation at the end of the Second World War, and Christian Aid– known at the time as
Christian Reconstruction in Europe – was founded to help address it. Then, 50
years ago, came the first Christian Aid Week – a mass mobilisation of
supporters to raise funds for the continuing refugee crisis in Europe and
beyond. The roots of the organisation run deep into the tragedy of forced
migration. So it is with some authority that we now issue a stark warning
about accelerating rates of displacement in the 21st century. As the
effects of climate change join and exacerbate the conflicts, natural disasters
and development projects that drive displacement, we fear that an emerging
migration crisis will spiral out of control. Unless urgent action is taken, it
threatens to dwarf even that faced by the war ravaged world all those decades
ago. Christian Aid predicts that, on current trends, a further 1 billion people
will be forced from their homes between now and 2050. We believe forced
migration is the most urgent threat facing poor people in developing
countries. The time for action is now.
A member of OMNI’s Climate Book
Forum, Alberto Torres, introduced us to the following superlative and highly
significant book, as far as I know the first book to treat comprehensively the
full scope of climate refugees. The Preface provides us with a Manifesto. The chapters
take us through the world as it is in Refugeedom! --D
| |||
| |||
“Global
climate change and global refugee crises will soon become inextricably
interlinked. A new tsunami of climate refugees flows across the earth. We are
now at the moment of truth." Climate
change is with us and we need to think about the next big disturbing idea –
the potentially disastrous consequences of massive numbers of environmental
refugees at large on the planet. In 2020 the United Nations projects that we
will have 50 million environmental
refugees mostly from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. How will people be
relocated and settled? Is it possible to offer environmental refugees
temporary or permanent asylum? Will these refugees have any collective rights
in the new areas they inhabit? And lastly, who will pay the costs of all the
affected countries during the process of resettlement? Environmental refugees
are a problem beyond the scope of a single country or agency."John R.
Wennersten and Denise Robbins, from the book. [At every government level we should be
preparing for refugees, not by walls and guns, but by kindness and
generosity. The governments can rely
on the churches, united by the Golden Rule, and Jesus was a refugee who
devoted his life to the poor and downtrodden. Fayetteville has started a fund for people
fleeing wars and warming; to contribute contact Susan Norton,snorton@fayetteville-ar.gov –D] |
Tom Engelhardt. “Our Not-So-Slow-Motion
Apocalypse. My
Extreme World,And (Un)Welcome to It.” POSTED ON AUGUST 12, 2021.
BY TOM ENGELHARDT.
[This essay summarizes the latest conclusions of the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We might save our civilization if we first
face the full reality, and then do what that reality compels us to do. One of the major consequences of the climate
catastrophe, already affecting millions of people, is refugees. The numerous advantages of NWA will be
attractive to the wealthy as well as to the desperate, and Fayetteville should
be preparing to welcome them peacefully and justly. Dick
Bennett, Prof. Emer. UAF, Founder OMNI.]
“Climate Change
and the Pacific Islands:‘When the land disappears, we will all disappear’.”
Editor. Mronline.org (7-21-21).
Originally published: Green Left on July 13, 2021 by
Susan Price
(more by Green
Left) | (Posted Jul 20, 2021)
Agriculture, Climate Change, Environment, HealthAustralasia, Australia, New ZealandNewswirePacific Islands
Another method rich
countries are using to downplay the severity of climate change is to ignore its
consequences, or try and pass them off as “natural” events.
Climate change is
already leading to rising sea levels, threatening island and coastal
communities and devastating food security and access to fresh water. Long-term
drought and changes in weather patterns are causing hunger and destroying
farming land.
By the middle of the
century, it is estimated that as many as 200 million people worldwide may be
displaced as a result.
Yet, rich countries
have responded to this humanitarian disaster with lock-down and lock-up
measures to try and stop vulnerable people trying to flee.
The poorest nations
with the least resources–which have had the least to do with the climate
emergency–are being left to deal with humanitarian problems. . . .MORE click on
title
[What do you think of this argument? Betsy Hartmann. The
America Syndrome. 2017. P. 218.
A major theme is the danger of exaggerating harmful effects of climate
change because it intensifies economic and military interests. But who is exaggerating? –D]
“’I'm fighting for our future. Will you join
me?’”
Xiye Bastida - Fridays
for the Future NYC, and 350.org Sep 3, 2019.
to me
9-9-19
Dick,
My name is Xiye
Bastida and I am a 17-year-old Climate Justice Activist. Four years ago I had to leave my home in
San Pedro Tultepec, Mexico. Unprecedented rainfall flooded my town,
which prevented me from going to school. The climate crisis forced my family to
choose, at 13, between staying at home or live in a healthier
environment. In New York City I have rallied, lobbied, and testified at
City Hall to protect our livelihoods. I've joined with youth around the world
walking out of class to demand real leadership and accountability from our
elected officials. But it's not enough for the youth to demand change on
our own. We need everyone to stand up and say no, we will not stand by
and let any more homes be destroyed — like we’ve just seen in the Bahamas in
the last 24 hours.
We need everyone to
join us on September 20th for the Global Climate Strike. There are hundreds of Climate Strike events being planned
across the country. Click here to find one near you — or host one yourself.
In 2017 there were
over 18 million climate refugees1. If we don't do anything
by 2050, there will be hundreds of millions of people2 forced,
like me, to leave their homes by increasingly devastating storms, floods, fires
and heat waves.
It doesn't have to be
this way. We know what the
solutions are — we just have to implement them. The problem is that governments
have chosen to listen to fossil fuel billionaires rather than protect their
people. But we, by acting together, have the power to take our future back. . .
.
Xiye Bastida - Fridays
for the Future NYC
1 - Climate change and disaster displacement, UNHCR.
2 – “143 Million People May Soon Become
Climate Migrants,” National
Geographic.
350.org is building a global climate movement. You can connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and text 350 to 83224 to get
important mobile action alerts. Become a sustaining donor to keep this movement strong and
growing. Looking for
other ways to get involved? Check out our map to see if there's a local 350 group or event
near you. [These 2019 links still function. –D]
Todd Miller. Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security. 2017.
Millions of climate refugees and the vicious response of
wealthy governments with their militarized borders. Miller calls instead for “cross-border
solidarity.”
Table of Contents and First
Chapter from
(PDF 495 KB) Print Email this page
·RECIPIENT OF THE 2018 IZZY AWARD FOR
EXCELLENCE IN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
"Every so often a
book comes along that can dramatically change, or elevate, one's thinking about
a global problem. Much like Naomi Klein's books, Todd Miller’s Storming
the Wall is such a book and deserves far more attention and
discussion."––Izzy Award Judges, Ithaca College
"A galvanizing
forecast of global warming's endgame and a powerful indictment of America's
current stance."––Kirkus Reviews
As global warming accelerates,
droughts last longer, floods rise higher, and super-storms become more
frequent. With increasing numbers of people on the move as a result, the
business of containing them––border fortification––is booming. In Storming the Wall, Todd Miller
travels around the world to connect the dots between climate-ravaged
communities, the corporations cashing in on border militarization, and emerging
movements for environmental justice and sustainability. Reporting from the
flashpoints of climate clashes, and from likely sites of futures battles,
Miller chronicles a growing system of militarized divisions between the rich
and the poor, the environmentally secure and the environmentally exposed.
Stories of crisis, greed and violence are juxtaposed with powerful examples of
solidarity and hope in this urgent and timely message from the frontlines of
the post-Paris Agreement era.
"Nothing will
test human institutions like climate change in this century––as this book makes
crystal clear, people on the move from rising waters, spreading deserts, and
endless storms could profoundly destabilize our civilizations unless we seize the
chance to reimagine our relationships to each other. This is no drill, but it
is a test, and it will be graded pass-fail"––Bill McKibben,
author Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, founder 350.org
List"
Photo by Roberto Neumiller, Also found
in the book Countdown by Alan Weisman
TRUMP
v. REFUGEES
Dick,
The screams of immigrant children being ripped from their parents’ arms at the
border are some of the most heartbreaking sounds I’ve ever heard. It’s even
more heartbreaking when I think about how the deepening climate crisis will
force millions more to leave their homes in the coming years. Punishing
those who seek safety will never be the solution.
A
few days ago, Trump signed an executive order to begin putting families in
detention centers together instead. But detaining
entire families is not a solution, it’s a jail sentence -- so it’s more
important than ever to come together and fight Trump’s cruelty. This Saturday, people across the country are taking action to
stand with immigrant families and against Trump’s cruel “zero tolerance”
policy. Find an action near you here.
The
news this week has shown just how low Trump and his allies will sink to push
their hateful agenda. And as a climate movement, we can’t afford to
stand idly by. All our fights for justice are connected -- and this is a moment
to stand up for what’s right. Like
you, I’m outraged and devastated -- but we’re not powerless. If we stand
together and keep up the pressure, our people power can win
justice and freedom for immigrant families -- and send a clear message that
this kind of cruelty is not what we the people stand for.
There is no climate justice without immigration justice. In just the last ten years, catastrophic
weather disasters have displaced about 24 million people every year.1 As
climate change worsens, those numbers will only grow.2 Justice
means supporting humane policies that allow the most vulnerable, including
families and children, to find safe haven.
And
around the world, the people hit hardest by the impacts of the climate crisis
continue to be those who have done the least to cause it: Indigenous Peoples,
people of color and poor people, are those most often displaced and forced to
migrate.
Climate justice means standing first and foremost with
communities on the frontlines. And today’s Supreme Court decision to uphold Trump’s cruel
Muslim ban makes it clearer than ever that immigrant communities are under
attack -- and the climate movement needs to stand with immigrants right now.
See
you in the streets on Saturday. Wear white.
In solidarity,
Natalia, 350.org
Sources:
[1] NPR: “The Refugees The World Barely Pays Attention To”
[2] ReliefWeb: “Climate Migrants Might Reach One Billion by 2050”
350.org is building a global climte movement. You can connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and text 350 to 83224 to get
important mobile action alerts. Become a sustaining donor to keep this movement strong and
growing.
SOLUTIONS
CENTRAL AMERICAN CLIMATE
REFUGEES DESERVE REPARATIONS
SUPPORT FROM USA
Maeve Higgins. “Paying Our Debts to the World.” The
Progressive (Aug.Sept. 2019).
Discusses This Land Is Our Land:
An Immigrant’s Manifesto by Suketu Mehta, a case for immigration as a form
of reparations as illustrated by the northern triangle of Central America composed of El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras with their poverty, corruption, high homicide
rates, and unprecedented emigration. The
US should offer support to the fleeing people because the US
created the climate chaos, especially drought, deforestation, land
degradation, crop loss, rising sea levels, El Nino events, and the atrocious
violence during Reagan’s 1980s that are pushing these Central Americans to seek
a better life.
MoreDECREASE INEQUALITY AND NORTHERN CONSUMPTION
“To eradicate global poverty and cut global carbon emissions, rich nations must
change their consumption patterns.”
Editor. Mronline.org
(2-24-22).
Originally published: China Environment News on February 20, 2022 by
Ayesha Tandon (more by China
Environment News)
(Posted Feb 23, 2022).
Climate Change, Environment, Imperialism, InequalityGlobalNewswirePoverty
Sometimes the aching
injustice of human-caused climate change hits you square between the eyes.
Justice,
Democracy
Energy
Democracy: Advancing Equity in Clean Energy Solutions. Edited by Denise Fairchild and Al Weinrub. 2017.
A global energy war is underway. It is man versus nature, fossil
fuel versus clean energy, the haves versus the have-nots, and, fundamentally,
an extractive economy versus a regenerative economy. The
near-unanimous consensus among climate scientists is that the massive
burning of gas, oil, and coal is having a cataclysmic impact on our atmosphere
and climate, and depleting earth’s natural resources, including its land,
food, fresh water and biodiversity.
These climate and environmental impacts are particularly magnified and
debilitating for low-income communities and communities of color that live
closest to toxic sites, are disproportionately impacted by high incidences of
asthma, cancer and rates of morbidity and mortality, and lack the
financial resources to build resilience to climate change.
Energy democracy tenders a response and joins the environmental and climate
movements with broader movements for social and economic change. Energy
democracy is a way to frame the international struggle of working people,
low income communities, and communities of color to take control of energy
resources from the energy establishment and use those resources to empower
their communities—literally providing energy, economically, and politically.
Energy democracy is more important than ever as climate and social justice
advocates confront a shocking political reality in the U.S.
This volume brings together racial, cultural, and generational perspectives.
This diversity is bound together by a common operating frame: that the
global fight to save the planet—to conserve and restore our natural resources
to be life-sustaining—must fully engage community residents and must
change the larger economy to be sustainable, democratic, and just. The
contributors offer their perspectives and approaches to climate and clean
energy from rural Mississippi, to the South Bronx, to Californian immigrant
and refugee communities, to urban and semi-rural communities in the Northeast. Taken
together, the contributions in this book show what an alternative, democratized
energy future can look like, and will inspire others to take up the struggle to
build the energy democracy movement.
UNITED NATIONS
On JUNE 20, World Refugee
Day, help us prevent a lost
generation by providing displaced children a chance at a better future
through education. That starts with ensuring refugee camps are equipped with
safe schools so a child's future doesn't suffer when her world is
uprooted. Make a donation today — every bit helps.
TELL CONGRESS YOU
STAND WITH REFUGEES
From Syria to Venezuela,
Bangladesh to South Sudan, the UN is on the frontlines responding to refugee
crises around the world. But the need for shelter, food, health care,
education, and other vital aid is urgent. We must support the UN's work
now. Tell Congress you stand #WithRefugees.
Throughout history and today, refugees contribute rich culture,
innovation, and value to our societies. To celebrate World Refugee Day, we
created a collection of songs by musical artists who were once refugees
themselves. Take a listen and share with your friends.
UNAUNA
United Nations Association of the United
States of America
1750 Pennsylvania Ave NW #300
Washington, DC, DC 20006
REFUGEES ANTHOLOGY #1
https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/11/omni-climate-refugees-anthology-1.html
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a
Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology
https://Omnicenter.org/donate/