Migration

This is what I found in The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/18/mass-migration-crisis-refugees-climate-change

Mass migration is no ‘crisis’: it’s the new normal as the climate changes
by Ellie Mae O’Hagan

What’s the common factor between the tragic deaths of refugees in the Mediterranean and the Arab spring? Food shortages driven by global warming

I’ve been interested in the way the migrant crisis is being debated in politics and the media. It’s that word – crisis – that is particularly striking. It suggests that what we’re seeing in across Europe is an aberration, a temporary disaster to be “solved” by politicians. Even the sight of ramshackle tents in Calais suggests a phenomenon that could be cleared away at any given moment.

In The Concept of the Political, the philosopher Carl Schmitt argued that, when presented with crisis, liberal democracies will put aside constitutional niceties in order to survive. The public consents to its government violating liberal values because crisis is a state of exception, which requires desperate measures.

Perhaps that explains why there has been so little uproar over supposedly civilised societies using terminology like “marauding” and “swarms”, and making policy decisions that result in hundreds of people drowning in the Mediterranean or languishing in detention centres. These things, we think, don’t reflect who we are as people. They are just necessary responses to this current crisis.

There is only one problem with calling this phenomenon of migration a crisis, and that is that it’s not temporary: it’s permanent. Thanks to global climate change, mass migration could be the new normal.

There are lots of estimates as to what we can expect to see in the near future, but the best known (and controversial) figure comes from Professor Norman Myers, who argues that climate change could cause 200 million people to be displaced by 2050.

In fact, it’s already happening. According to the Pentagon, climate change is a “threat multiplier” and does appear to be increasing risk of conflict.

Indeed a new study released in March suggests this is exactly what happened in Syria, after a severe drought in 2006. As the study’s co-author, Professor Richard Seager, explains, “We’re not saying drought caused the [Syrian conflict]. We’re saying that added to all the other stressors, it helped kick things over the threshold into open conflict. And a drought of that severity was made much more likely by the ongoing human-driven drying of that region.”

Syria now has the highest number of refugees in the world. A new government-commissioned report on the looming climate-induced food shortage suggests that “the rise of Isis may owe much to the food crises that spawned the Arab spring”.

In his book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond points out that the most environmentally stressed places in the world are the most likely to have conflicts, which then generate refugees. Rapid climate change will environmentally stress lots of developing countries.

One day there could be Italians and Greeks in camps in Calais, as their own countries become even hotter and more arid
But it’s not just conflicts exacerbated by climate that will create refugees: climate change, in and of itself, is likely to cause mass migration. As Simon Lewis, professor of global change science at University College London puts it: “Climate and vegetation zones are shifting, so the Mediterranean will likely keep getting drier this century, with knock-on negative social and economic impacts. That will be tough for Spain, Italy and Greece, where significant numbers of people may move north, and of course, displaced people from elsewhere wouldn’t stay in the Mediterranean, they’d keep travelling north.”

In other words, the Mediterranean countries currently trying to cope with migrants from other parts of the world may eventually have a migrant crisis of their own. One day there could conceivably be Italians and Greeks in camps in Calais, as their own countries become even hotter and more arid.

In a 2014 paper, Migration as Adaptation, Kayly Ober suggests migration is a good way of dealing with the imminent effects of climate change. She argues that the international community’s thoughts should “turn from not only stemming greenhouse gas emissions, but also how to deal with an already altered world”.

The idea of millions of migrants being assisted to move to western Europe might scandalise the Daily Mail, but it shouldn’t – because migration might be a form of adaptation many Britons may also have to consider. According to the Environment Agency, 7,000 British properties may be lost to rising sea levels over the next century. These people too will need to be relocated.

So what do we do about climate migration? The first step is to change our perceptions. We need to process the fact that migration isn’t going to go away or be “solved”. In all likelihood, it will become more common; a new normal.

The second step is obvious – we must all be more active in pushing governments to take more decisive action to reduce global greenhouse emissions, so that more people can remain safely in their homes and communities. For its part, Britain must adhere to international commitments to reduce emissions in line with keeping warming below dangerous levels (in other words 2C above pre-industrial levels) as well as providing adequate funds for adaptation. Britain must also push for a strong equitable global deal in the Paris climate talks in December, seen by many as the “last chance” to avert catastrophic climate change.

And finally, we need to urgently address the current strategies western governments are using to deal with migration, and the almost rabid commentary that often accompanies those strategies. There is a strong case for Britain to take a substantial number of climate refugees: as the first country to industrialise, we need to take historical responsibility for climate change, and should take into account our historical carbon emissions and their effects when responding to mass climate migration.

The migration we are witnessing is not a state of exception: it is the beginning of a new paradigm – and how we choose to respond to it reflects on who we fundamentally are as a society. We must deal with the victims of this permanent crisis in a compassionate way, not just for their humanity but for our own.

About Climate Change

I like very much this article in The Guardian about Climate Change:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/08/how-will-everything-change-under-climate-change

Here is what Naomi Klein says in this article:

“It is our great collective misfortune that the scientific community made its decisive diagnosis of the climate threat at the precise moment when an elite minority was enjoying more unfettered political, cultural, and intellectual power than at any point since the 1920s. Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein
Sunday 8 March 2015 23.00 AEDTThe second in a major series of articles on the climate crisis and how humanity can solve it. In this extract taken from the Introduction to This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, the author calls the climate crisis a civilisational wake-up call to alter our economy, our lifestyles, now – before they get changed for us.
You can read the first extract here.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING is published this week in paperback by Penguin, £8.99

The alarm bells of the climate crisis have been ringing in our ears for years and are getting louder all the time – yet humanity has failed to change course. What is wrong with us?

Many answers to that question have been offered, ranging from the extreme difficulty of getting all the governments in the world to agree on anything, to an absence of real technological solutions, to something deep in our human nature that keeps us from acting in the face of seemingly remote threats, to – more recently – the claim that we have blown it anyway and there is no point in even trying to do much more than enjoy the scenery on the way down.

Some of these explanations are valid, but all are ultimately inadequate. Take the claim that it’s just too hard for so many countries to agree on a course of action. It is hard. But many times in the past, the United Nations has helped governments to come together to tackle tough cross-border challenges, from ozone depletion to nuclear proliferation. The deals produced weren’t perfect, but they represented real progress. Moreover, during the same years that our governments failed to enact a tough and binding legal architecture requiring emission reductions, supposedly because cooperation was too complex, they managed to create the World Trade Organisation – an intricate global system that regulates the flow of goods and services around the planet, under which the rules are clear and violations are harshly penalised.

The assertion that we have been held back by a lack of technological solutions is no more compelling. Power from renewable sources like wind and water predates the use of fossil fuels and is becoming cheaper, more efficient, and easier to store every year. The past two decades have seen an explosion of ingenious zero-waste design, as well as green urban planning. Not only do we have the technical tools to get off fossil fuels, we also have no end of small pockets where these low carbon lifestyles have been tested with tremendous success. And yet the kind of large-scale transition that would give us a collective chance of averting catastrophe eludes us.

Is it just human nature that holds us back then? In fact we humans have shown ourselves willing to collectively sacrifice in the face of threats many times, most famously in the embrace of rationing, victory gardens, and victory bonds during world wars one and two. Indeed to support fuel conservation during world war two, pleasure driving was virtually eliminated in the UK, and between 1938 and 1944, use of public transit went up by 87% in the US and by 95% in Canada. Twenty million US households – representing three fifths of the population – were growing victory gardens in 1943, and their yields accounted for 42% of the fresh vegetables consumed that year. Interestingly, all of these activities together dramatically reduce carbon emissions.

Yes, the threat of war seemed immediate and concrete but so too is the threat posed by the climate crisis that has already likely been a substantial contributor to massive disasters in some of the world’s major cities. Still, we’ve gone soft since those days of wartime sacrifice, haven’t we? Contemporary humans are too self-centered, too addicted to gratification to live without the full freedom to satisfy our every whim – or so our culture tells us every day. And yet the truth is that we continue to make collective sacrifices in the name of an abstract greater good all the time. We sacrifice our pensions, our hard-won labour rights, our arts and after-school programmes. We accept that we have to pay dramatically more for the destructive energy sources that power our transportation and our lives. We accept that bus and subway fares go up and up while service fails to improve or degenerates. We accept that a public university education should result in a debt that will take half a lifetime to pay off when such a thing was unheard of a generation ago.

The past 30 years have been a steady process of getting less and less in the public sphere. This is all defended in the name of austerity, the current justification for these never-ending demands for collective sacrifice. In the past, calls for balanced budgets, greater efficiency, and faster economic growth have served the same role.”

You might perhaps like to have a look at this interview by The Spiegel:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/global-warming-interview-with-naomi-klein-a-1020007.html

Action on Climate Change

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2014/sep/16/peoples-climate-march-350-new-york-blair-palese

The People’s Climate Mobilisation — your chance to commit to real climate action
On Sunday 21 September, tens of thousands of people in Australia will join the global people’s march. Find out why from 350.org’s Blair Palese.
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Members of Occupy Wall Street celebrate after learning they can stay in Zuccotti Park in New York
New York will be the focus of global “people’s marches” for climate action. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
350.org is a global climate organisation that has rapidly expanded to become a leading voice across the world for action on climate change. Blair Palese is the Australian CEO of 350.org, and she has enormous experience in fossil fuel and oceans campaigning. 350.org is one of the primary organisers for the people’s march on 21 September, and Blair has written this guest blog to explain why tens of thousands of Australians will be marching.

The People’s Climate Mobilisation — your chance to commit to real climate action

This weekend will see be the biggest public climate event in history. More than 100,000 people will march in New York alone and hundreds of thousands of others will join them on the streets of 150 countries around the world, all calling for climate change action.

RT @350: Exactly 1 week to the #PeoplesClimate March worldwide – Will you be there? pic.twitter.com/gjrPZVf9Ud

— 350Australia (@350Australia) September 15, 2014

This weekend also will see the heads of state from more than 125 countries, including Barack Obama and David Cameron gather in New York for a summit on climate change organised by Ban Ki Moon. This is the first time world leaders have come together on the issue since the landmark Copenhagen summit in 2009 and the UN Secretary General hopes the summit will inject new momentum to reach a global deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Paris at the end of 2015.

Amazingly Australia’s our own prime minister, Tony Abbott, will be in New York for the UN Security Council meeting – no doubt to talk about war – but refuses to attend the Climate Summit. Although this may have come as a disappointment for the EU Commissioner for climate action, few in Australia are surprised as this government has already made its priorities and prejudices abundantly clear.

The fact that the Prime Minister of Australia, the world’s second largest exporter of coal, has chosen to shun this summit speaks volumes about why we need the People’s Climate Mobilisation. With global leaders so far failing to act in the world’s best interest to address climate change, it’s time for the global public to not only show that it is demanding change but that we will also act together to bring about the change we need.

People’s Climate events are planned in almost every continent in the world. In Bogata, Columbia, over 10,000 people are expected to join in a march through the capital calling for action. In rural Papua New Guinea, students from a primary school will march to a nearby lighthouse, recently semi-submerged due to rising sea levels. In Tanzania, the Maasai people plan to march, calling for action to protect their ancient homeland in the Serengeti. On the other side of the world, on the border between Vancouver and Seattle, thousands of people will link hands across the boundary to show that climate change knows no borders.

In Australia, an epic Climate March will convene in Melbourne with a group committed to walking 700 km along the eastern seaboard to Canberra, arriving at Parliament to raise awareness about climate impacts. There are over 30 People’s Climate events taking place in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra and Brisbane, as well as on Magnetic Island on the Great Barrier Reef, in Alice Springs, Darwin and the remote mining town of Mount Isa. Organisations such as Get Up!, Avaaz, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Our Land Our Water Our Future and the Leard Alliance are working nationally to organise and support large and small events alike.

One of the most impressive things about the day and the 2,000 plus events taking place across the globe is not just the individuals organising and taking part but the thousands of organisations – including unions, medical professionals, faith, social justice and community groups and those fighting for the rights of immigrants, refugees and indigenous peoples, that have signed on. The People’s Climate Mobilisation is about how we use this opportunity to build the networks we need to demand global leadership and real action on climate change.

Together, on Sunday, we’ll be calling for Action Not Words and we’ll be hoping to sign up hundreds of thousands of people to stand up for the planet they care about. Whether it’s divesting your bank, super fund, university or church from fossil fuels, supporting the shift to renewable energy at your home or in your community or taking action on the ground at places like the Leard Blockade at Maules Creek, the Galilee Basin or the proposed gas fields of WA, we all need to get involved to overcome the influence and dominance of the fossil fuel industry working to stop movement on climate change.

People around the world, and especially Australians, realise that we can’t leave the fate of the planet up to our politicians. We need to work together around the world, raise our voices, and apply pressure where it counts if we are going to see tangible change. This is why we are calling on all Australians, regardless of political allegiance, cultural background or profession, to join us on Sunday and show that, contrary to the opinions of many of our politicians, we DO care about the planet and what happens to it beyond our generation

Sea Level Rises

Sea level rises due to climate change could cost Australia $200b, Climate Council report finds

Lateline

By Hamish Fitzsimmons

Updated 25 minutes agoWed 17 Sep 2014, 6:18am

PHOTO: Sydney was named as one of the places which would be hardest hit by rising sea levels.(Karen Barlow, file photo: ABC News)

MAP: Australia

Future sea level rises could put more than $200 billion of Australian infrastructure at risk, a report by the Climate Council has found.

The report, Counting the Costs: Climate Change and Coastal Flooding, showed sea levels were likely to rise by between 40 centimetres and one metre over the next century.

The Climate Council succeeded the Australian Climate Commission, which was axed after the Federal Government took office last year.

The report’s lead author, Professor Will Steffen, warned national income would suffer huge losses if action was not taken to protect against rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

“You’re looking at anywhere from three tenths of a per cent of loss of GDP per year, all the way up to 9 per cent loss of GDP per year,” Professor Steffen said.

Coastal flooding report:

At least $226 billion of infrastructure exposed to flooding and erosion (with a 1.1m sea level rise), including:

$81b – commercial buildings
$72b – residential
$67b – road and rail
$6b – light industrial buildings

Source: Climate Council

“That upper scenario is higher than the growth rate of GDP per year, so you’re looking basically at staggering economic costs if we don’t get this under control.”

The Victorian coast, the south-east corner of Queensland and Sydney would be the hardest hit by rising sea levels, the report found.

With more than 75 per cent of Australians living near the coast, Professor Steffen said large swathes of infrastructure were at risk.

“Much of our road, rail, port facilities, airports and so on are on the coast,” he said.

“If you look at a 1.1 metre sea level rise – which is the high-end scenario for 2100 but that’s what we’re tracking towards – you’re looking at more than $200 billion worth of infrastructure that’s at risk.”

Professor Steffen said so-called once-in-a-lifetime natural events could become regular occurrences.

VIDEO: Watch Hamish Fitzsimmons’ report. (Lateline)

“If you look at some of our most vulnerable areas, and the Sydney region is one of those, you would say toward the end of this century that a one-in-100-year flood is going to be happening every few days,” he said.

“That’s an impossible situation to cope with.”

Professor Steffen said infrastructure projects, like the new runway planned for Brisbane’s airport, needed to factor in future sea rises.

“The people who are investing actually went to the best scientists here in Australia, experts of sea level rises, and took the best science into account and decided they were going to build that third runway higher than previously planned,” he said.

If sea level rises were ignored, by 2050 the report predicted the global the impact of coastal flooding would cost $US1 trillion per year – the same size as the Australian economy.

Climate change impacting insurance premiums

The Climate Council warned sea level rises would put pressure on home insurance premiums, as rising sea levels fed coastal erosion.

Australian Local Government Association president Felicity-Ann Lewis said erosion was already causing problems for home owners.

National infrastructure within 200 metres of the coastline:

120 ports
five power stations/substations
three water treatment plants
258 police, fire and ambulance stations
75 hospitals and health services
11 emergency services facilities
41 waste disposal facilities

“The insurance industry is very interested in this because some of the insurance premiums are becoming such that people can’t afford to take out insurance on their properties,” Dr Lewis said.

“This is a very big issue.”

Dr Lewis said a lack of coordination across all levels of government was impeding action.

“It’s a very mixed bag; there is no consistent view or approach for local government to try to deal with this,” she said.

“Each state and territory association is trying to deal with different guidelines; there is no consensus around that, so for us it’s a very big challenge.”

Breaking New Ground

Books

Released 2013

Single hardback copy: $15 – Save!! Retails for $24.95
Discounts for multiple copies.

Breaking New Ground: A Personal History

Lester R. Brown

Lester Brown traces his life from a small farm in rural southern New Jersey through his personal evolution into the world’s foremost authority on global environmental issues. The first in his family to graduate from elementary school, he reveals what inspired him—and the millions of those who have read his books—to become environmentally active.

International Publishers

Press Release

Lester R. Brown, whom the Washington Post praised as “one of the world’s most influential thinkers,” built his understanding of global environmental issues from the ground up. Brown spent his childhood working on the family’s small farm. His entrepreneurial skills surfaced early. Even while excelling in school, he launched with his younger brother a tomato-growing operation that by 1958 was producing 1.5 million pounds of tomatoes.

Later, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Brown emphasized the need for systemic thinking. In 1963 he did the first global food supply and demand projections to the end of the century. While on a brief assignment in India in 1965, he pieced together the clues that led him to sound the alarm on an impending famine there. His urgent warning to the U.S. and Indian governments set in motion the largest food rescue effort in history, helping to save millions of lives. This experience led India to adopt new agricultural practices, which he helped to shape.

Brown went on to advise governments internationally and to found the Worldwatch and Earth Policy institutes, two major nonprofit environmental research organizations. Both brilliant and articulate, through his many books he has brought to the fore the interconnections among such issues as overpopulation, climate change, and water shortages and their effect on food security. His 1995 book, Who Will Feed China?, led to a broad restructuring of China’s agricultural policy. Never one to focus only on the problem, Brown always proposes pragmatic, employable solutions to stave off the unfolding ecological crises that endanger our future.

Tag: Climate Change