Global Warming and How It Affects Climate Migrants
Welcome to the October 2021 YFCR newsletter. Every month we post a newsletter where we inform our subscribers about global issues concerning climate refugees. YFCR aims to raise awareness and money to support those who have lost their homes or are forced to migrate due to climate related issues. This month we will be focusing on a couple of climate related incidents that have happened globally and locally, but also the increase in government awareness in the United states.
According to the Guardian the Earth has already heated around 1.2 celsius on average, which is only going to get progressively worse as the climate crisis continues. The UN has already met for another climate submission and predicted that it will most likely rise 1.5 celsius in the next five years. This means that not only will there be a large decrease in biodiversity, but there will be more climate induced issues across the globe, such as the flooding in places such as Sicily, a global increase in heatwaves, and water deprivation in places which are already struggling. It is an understatement to say that the situation globally is getting more dire. When these issues are combined with political, economical, and social issues it seems more developed countries will be receiving large waves of migrants seeking refuge from the multitude of issues occurring worldwide.
In a report made by reliefweb, it is stated that one model for the sole purpose of predicting the number of climate migrants found that climate change may lead to nearly three percent of the population (totaling more than 143 million people) in three regions - Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America - to move within their country of origin by 2050. These areas specifically seem to be struggling more with climate induced issues, including heatwaves, flooding, drought, etc. The WWFCA found that, between 2000 and 2013, South America had experienced around 613 extreme climate and hydro-meteorological events. South America’s climate has changed greatly, because of the increased temperatures which has led to Precipitation patterns shifting, temperatures rising, and some areas are experiencing changes in the frequency and severity of weather extremes such as heavy rains. The WWFCA stated that “Food and water supplies will be disrupted. Towns and cities and the infrastructure required to sustain them will be increasingly at risk. Human health and welfare will be adversely affected, along with natural ecosystems”. This is just the issues occurring and that will occur in one of the listed areas.
The UN and many governments have been putting more emphasis on the issue of climate change and the problems that arise with it, which includes that many governments are not adequately prepared for the flux of migrants. The recently White House issued a report on the impact of climate change on migration. This policy brief presents a new framework for U.S. leadership on climate migration. In this policy brief they addressed major questions, such as what is the relationship between climate change and human mobility and what recourse and protections are currently available to climate migrants? Hopefully through this briefing there will be a better framework so that this issue can be better handled and addressed by the government.
Photo Credit: NRDC
