My Political Science thesis is looking at climate migration, which is the movement of people as a result of the negative impacts of climate change such as natural disasters, and sea level rise. I am specifically looking at Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as the Marshall Islands and Solomon Islands in the South East Pacific Ocean that will be displaced in the short time span of 25-30 years, if not sooner, if the globe community continues to emit the present, abusive rate of Green House Gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere.
This research looks at not only the effects of climate migration, but I’m hoping to use the diction of environmental racism to gain these migrants refugee status under the UN definition until further policy can synthesized and implemented. I intend to work on shaping some of this policy in this thesis in tandem with the current migration world policies in regards to internal and external movement.
I found an article from National Geographic’s talking about the topic generally, but discussing the number of people that will actually be displaced by 2050. Here are those numbers on a simple bar graph to show the optimistic projectiles vs. the more realistic number of people displaced if we continue leaving the same carbon footprint we are presently engaged in within the Anthropocene.
Here’s a link to the graph (just because I’m still having issues with my computer):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K8kDLpyiTHFhd8pllKvd3OCndVgPAUxPg8SxvLJcjb0/edit?usp=sharing
I personally have no prior knowledge about climate migration but the issue is one that needs to be brought more into the public eye. I feel as though a lot of people in the United States may be blind to the fact that people are losing their homes due to climate change, solely because it has not become a prominent issue in the states yet.
Your post is very interesting especially because I did not know that climate change is having that severe of an effect. This issue is definitely not discussed enough and needs to be taken seriously considering many people are losing their homes. Oftentimes, people just think about short-term effects of climate change such as what a single natural disaster can do. If we do not make changes and resolve this issue, many more people will be displaced.
I think environmental racism is a really interesting issue. I took a class called “Sociology of Disaster” which discussed how natural disasters are far less natural than they appear, and that damage is largely determined by what existed before the disaster. For example, the mass destruction of Hurricane Katrina is partially the fault of the low income housing which was poorly constructed.
What is America doing to help? it seems that we are standing on the sidelines watching as we hurt the earth with our greenhouse gasses. People displacement is a serious issue and if we do not get in front of it the refugees of these inhabitable islands will be at risk!