Climate refugees
In September global temperatures spiked to 1.7°C above pre-industrial levels, 0.5°C hotter than the previous monthly record, and 2023 is the hottest year. Global temperatures began rising in 1900, but sharply increased in 1970, and yet again in 2010. Left unaddressed, this double exponential acceleration means the climate changes we are already seeing will become more severe.
During the 2017 Redwood Valley fire, neighbors helped neighbors flee the ember blizzard, some escaping with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, and the larger community rallied with support.
Before Hurricane Idalia hit Florida last August, 1/3 of the state were told to evacuate and millions heeded the warning. The migration surge impacted surrounding areas, congesting highways, filling all available lodging, overwhelming and disrupting the regional economy. For the most part, these climate refugees were welcomed, or at least tolerated, as the need to avoid the disaster was on the news everywhere, and these were all “locals”, part of the larger community.
But imagine if folks fleeing for their lives had encountered armed barriers when they hit the county line. Imagine that folks in other parts of the country didn't want to have their own lives disrupted. Imagine if those refugees had not been considered “local,” but “other.”
This happened when hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. Much of the low-lying city was flooded, forcing unexpected evacuations. But in some areas, dislocated blacks were turned away by armed whites in neighboring communities, forced to stay on higher parts of the highway system with no food, water, or shelter.
The refugee problem on our southern border has been an issue for years. There are many reasons people have uprooted their lives, walking thousands of miles, risking hardships and predators along the way, to try to get to the US. One is the economic devastation already caused by the changing climate, which made their previous homes uninhabitable or economically impossible.
More than 2 million people have been apprehended crossing from Mexico in 2023. Some border states have shipped folks north as a political statement, with over 100,000 reported in New York City alone, overwhelming shelter capacities. But New York has lost 500,000 residents in the last year. The real problem is not the influx of people, but the lack of short-term shelter facilities to deal with it. Our entire country is confronted with an aging population and declining birth rate, yet we disparage the millions of relatively young, hard-working people wanting to come here, because they are designated “other.”
Our refugee issue is a part of a global problem, as millions are on the move, displaced by regional climate collapse, and the wars that explode as a result. This will only get worse as the climate crisis grows.
88°F at 100 percent humidity is the maximum a healthy young human can sustain and survive. As the planet warms, the air holds more moisture, making larger areas too hot and humid for humans and other mammals. The Middle East, Asia, and Africa are at risk, as well as parts of the US. Summer in Phoenix has already been declared uninhabitable without air conditioning. By 2100, at least a billion people will be heat impacted, and another 200 million will be displaced by 6.5 feet of sea level rise.
More immediately, the World Health Organization estimates drought will dislocate 700 million by 2030, six years from now. Drought is already affecting global food production, hindering food transportation, decreasing crop yields and water availability. When the land can no longer feed people, they move.
If we are having problems with a few million people moving, what will happen when a billion people are moving in order to survive? For most of us, this problem is “over there”, but that can change in a moment.
We can start by not killing each other anymore, valuing every life, if we value any. Using religious, racial, economic, or national divisions as an excuse for tyranny is ignorant, as the climate crisis shows we are a global family in reality. Centuries of killing to “avenge” a wrong have failed, breeding only stronger backlash, bringing us to the brink of societal collapse. We must not only end “hating” and following hateful leaders, but actively begin “loving.” Christ said it and John Lennon reaffirmed it: “love is all we need.” Simple, but difficult, given the centuries of embedded grief. Are we too stubborn to survive?
Crispin B. Hollinshead lives in Ukiah. This and previous articles can be found at cbhollinshead.blogspot.com.