Lesson Twenty: Climate Refugees
How millions will need our help
I usually try to be very impartial on this platform - remove bias, state only the facts. But I feel like this issue in particular allows for some more colourful language. If you feel like you may be offended, I would suggest skipping this lesson.
LEARNING FROM SYRIAN REFUGEES
It’s related, I promise. Beginning in 2011, about 1 million Syrian refugees were displaced by a civil war inflamed by climate change and drought.
Remember how the world LOST 👏 ITS 👏 MIND 👏 because these war-stricken migrants were trying to relocate to safe countries like Canada, the US, France, Germany?
THE NEXT 50 YEARS
Well, the world is going to be a lot more familiar with refugees. A few weeks ago, we talked about sea levels rising. This will displace many who are living in massive coastal cities because their homes will be flooded / underwater.
Similarly, due to global warming, areas of the world will become so hot and have a lack of water and resources that they will “not be conducive for human life.”
HOW MANY CLIMATE REFUGEES?
The World Bank estimates that by 2050, 140 million people will be displaced and categorized as “climate refugees.” The world lost its mind over trying to find where 1 million displaced migrants would go. What is facing us is going to be 100-150x bigger than that.
HOW WILL THE WORLD REACT?
I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it isn’t looking like the world will react well to this. Here are a few reasons why:
Refugees will come from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the rest of South Asia ……. in case you haven’t noticed, there are some preeeeeetty xenophobic people running some countries nowadays
All of this will happen to a world that will be even further destabilized by climate chaos - making it harder for countries to contribute to foreign aid.
Climate refugees aren’t currently recognized under International Law - primarily due to a funding allocation hesitation (refer back to point #1)
SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN?
Honestly, I don’t have an answer for this one. I am not an expert on immigration policy and it’s hard to say what people and countries will do since it's so dependent on the people in power and the social trends. What I can say is that 1) Canada is very lucky to have a vast amount of resource-rich land and 2) as a planet, we’re going to need to get a lot better at sharing.
LEARN MORE WITH THE UNHCR
If you want to learn more, The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (aka the UN Refugee Agency) has a lot of great resources! If you’re also feeling charitable, they are a great organization to give to as well!
MY QUESTION FOR YOU
The top 20% of global consumers have created a system that aggressively hits the bottom 30-40% of the world’s population via our contributions to carbon emissions and pollution. If we create an unstable and unsafe environment for entire nations because of our collective actions and then turn them away if they ask for help (like a lot of developing countries are doing), what kind of people would we be? Would you be proud of that?
