Eye Opener : Summary of Reading #4: Environemental Refugees

The reading that I was assigned was #4 titled, "Environmental Refugees." I had never heard of this before, so wasn't exactly sure what to expect for the reading. Now my reading was actually quite short, but one of the most powerful readings I have ever read!
Summary:
The Fomenko family, who call Kazakhstan home, are being forced to leave because the Aral Sea is drying up and Marat, the father, is not able to keep his job as a fisherman. They will never return to their homeland with the vanishing sea that is causing ecological disaster and a 30-fold increase in disease. Marat and 25 million others worldwide have been forced to leave their homeland, these are our planet's environmental refugees.

Climate Change:
The biggest problem relating to environmental refugees is climate change. For Marat he was forced to leave because of the shrinking sea, but that is not the case for all refugees. In the case of Paani Talake, who lives in the lower level coast of Tuvalu, his problem is the rising sea level. The coconut plantations there are being contaminated by the salt water. It is predicted that within the next 50 years Tuvalu will slide beneath the enroaching waters. As New Zealand is offering him a new start, many others will not recieve the same. Many other island nations are in danger from the rising sea levels, and many more people will be seeking for a new home.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's have predicted a one-meter sea-level rise this century. To put this impact into perspective, if the sea rose one-meter in Bangladesh it would force 20 million people to leave their homes. A migration this huge would cause a lot of sickness and would be expected to increase 100-fold in misquito-borne diseases. Malaria has quadrupled in the last 5 years. The worst part about these issues is that our politicians still choose to ignore them!

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has failed to address this problem as well. Instead of trying to change their legal framework they say that a refugee is defined as a person whose flight is due to a "well-founded fear of persecution on grounds such as race and religion."

Many prefer to ignore this problem and address other issues as if this doesn't exist. The Red Cross figured that 58% of the worlds 43 million refugees are environmentally displaced. That would mean almost 1 in every 250 people on our earth are displaced.

The Politics of Environmental Refugees:
Politicians and media are labeling environmental refugees as "bogus." They say that it is as if the environmental refugee is almost too big to comprehend, and much easier to ignore it and address other issues to make them seem bigger.

The UNHCR:
The UNHCR has an annual budget of 843m, but only a fraction so small you couldn't break it down is offered for environmental refugees. This just goes to show how small of a priority the government is making this. As well as the fact that the U.S. and Australia refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

Driven From Their Land:
Over population is also a contributer to our growing number of environmental refugees. But once again it stems back to climate change. Four years ago, when the article was written in 2002, we suffered a "super-disaster." For the first time in history more people were being displaced because of environmental reasons than war. Red cross reported that after helping people through floods, droughts, and earthquakes their numbers increased from 500,000 to 5.5 million in just 6 years.

My Thoughts:
I was really shocked and almost scared after I read this article. I do think we should all be a little scared right now, considering that pretty much nothing is being done to stop this from happening. The statistics that were presented in the article were rather alarming. Especially when they put them into a perspective you could relate it to! I found a website that is called The Idea and it is really cool, because they are trying to help raise money for environmental refugees and also just spread the word about what is happening! I really hope that some ideas for ways to fix this will come up soon and the government will open their eyes and realize this is a worldwide issue!

My Two Viewpoints:
The first point that I found comes from the UNHCR. In the article I read online from them it seems that they are trying to help with what they can, but at the same time they also make some excuses for themselves. I find that kind of annoying considering that their specification is for refugees! They do, however, tell about the growing problems and how they are helping to fix what they can!
My second viewpoint comes from a World Environment news story. It doesn't directly talk about environmental refugees, but by the viewpoint you can guess how they feel about them. It tells about how the U.S. and Australia refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Also the U.S. says that if everyone is having a problem with the rising sea levels Kyoto isn't going to fix it. The U.S. goes on to make excuses saying that the temperature of the earth has been rising for thousands of years and there is nothing we can do to stop it. I can't believe I live in a country whose officials respond this way! I realize that we didn't sign the Kyoto Protocol, but the outrageous excuses they make are too much! The U.S. better take a big step back and look at the big picture, and start helping to fix this problem!



Vocabulary:
Environmental Refugee- people who have been displaced from their homes by environmental degradation.
100-Fold- means to take 100 x 100. It means to pay someone more than they gave you.
Piffling- fiddling: (informal) small and of little importance; "a fiddling sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are lilliputian compared with..

Drowning By Numbers: The Consequences of Rising Sea Levels and Subsidence
1. In China, the city of Shanghai could be entirely flooded. The government calculates that 30 million of its people could be displaced by global warming.


2. With a forecast of 142 million people inhabiting coastal India by 2050, India's flood-zone refugees could total anything between 20 and 60 million.


3. 7% of Bangledash could be permanentely lost, with an estimated 15 million people being displaced.


4. By 2050 Egypt is expected to lose between 12 and 15% of its arable land, with a possible 14 million people being displaced. Egypt already imports well over half of its food.


5. Island states at risk include Maldives, Kiribati, the Marshalls and dozens of Caribbean states. Around 1 million people are likely to have to evacuate permanently.

The words "environment" and "refugee" do not belong together.

Questions for Discussion:

What can we do to get this problem recognized to more people? What are some ways to help this problem? What to do for the environmental refugees that are already being forced to leave their homes?