Sent to WS and Blog
OMNI CLIMATE CHANGE REFUGEES /DISPLACED
PERSONS NEWSLETTER, #1, August 5, 201 3. Compiled by Dick
Bennett for a CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY.
Preparation of this newsletter began in 2010 and
resumed in 2013. I would be happy if
somebody else would be the editor.
Whereas #1 concentrates on the realities of warming in relation to the
populations of the world, #2 might focus on mitigation and adaptation.--Dick
My blog:
War Department/Peace Department
War Department/Peace Department
Newsletters
Index:
For a knowledge-based peace, justice, and: ecology
movement and an informed citizenry as the foundation for change.
Contents #1
Local
Dick, Climate Refugees and Arkansas
Local/Global:
Marshallese
Global
Book: Climate Refugees
(2010)
70 Million More
More Books
Ward, The Flooded
Earth
Dyer, Climate Wars
And more
Films:
Climate Refugees (2010)
Weather Report (2007)
D’Lorah, Legal Aspects of Disappearing Island
Nations
CC Disrupting Food System
Related:
Google Search: IRO,
UNHCR
WWII DPs
Fleeing Afghans and Iraqis, Where They Go
LOCAL
CLIMATE REFUGEES AND ARKANSAS
[I wrote this in 2010, but I think it is accurate enough for today. –Dick]
It has
already started. It started a decade ago
at least.
Climate
refugees around the world are fleeing regions beset by violent storms, extreme
temperatures, melting glaciers, spreading deserts, swelling oceans.
Environmental
stress forced more than 25 million to migrate in 1998, according to the Red Cross, roughly the same number that fled
armed conflict.
More than 70
million climate refugees exist in 2010.
Much of below
sea-level New Orleans Arkansas
Half of New York City
What is being
done to stop the catastrophes resulting from climate change? What in Arkansas
Local and
federal governments around the world seem paralyzed by clutching short-term
goals, callous indifference to suffering of others, refusal to make hard
choices, corporate and rich people’s money..
Officials so far have tallied the financial cost of acting to prevent
warming and have chosen to do nothing.
But all must contribute financially
to the drastic reduction of CO2 if we are to prevent the worst from
happening to our descendents in the long run (thousands of years), and all must
contribute to the mitigation and adaptation to the immediate consequences of
warming in the short run (the next fifty to one hundred years)..
Being inland
in the “Natural State
What we can do in Arkansas
Reduce our carbon footprint
significantly. But all of us chickens
don’t have the same footprint.
Demand government
and corporate officials, the big birds, the pollution pterodactyls, wake up
to the urgent need to significantly reduce CO2, to cease greenwashing, and to
prepare for the increasing number of climate refugees. Don’t accept deceptive claims by government
or corporate greenscammers that they are working for a “greener” world. Ask them:
greener than what? greener that
will result in what?
Urge your senators and representatives (many of whom are
stubbornly ignorant about warming) to support an international treaty to recognize and protect the refugee
casualties from global warming.
Global
warming is already upon us. We can
prevent the worst results however, if we finally face the truth and get
massively to work, including preparing for the refugees.
Are your city and county ready? Does your City and County Emergency Managers
understand what is happening? Have they
read even one book about atmospheric warming?
Call them. And call again. Call your County Judge Quorum Court
members. Call your Mayor and City
Council members. And call again. –Dick
Early OMNI Stirrings
DISASTERS AND REFUGEES:
IS WASHINGTON COUNTY , FAYETTEVILLE READY? 2010.
John Luther,
Washington County Emergency Manager 444-1722, jluther@co.washington.ar.us
Office: 105 Mill Ave.
Rick Johnson, Dep.
Dir. Emerg. Management
8-5-13 Shelley,
yesterday I might have referred to this office as a city office; it is
county. I spoke to Luther and Johnson
in 2010 about climate displaced persons.
I just now spoke to Mr. Luther again, told him again about OMNI350, and
said we would like to visit with him about the possible impacts of climate change
on Washington County
Dick
[Following is one
paragraph from an excellent, fact-filled
letter from Professor Boss on
the increasing warming and consequent refugees written in 2010. We have a beginning doctoral student [Donna
Davis] in ENDY who wants to study the inevitable
migration of the Marshallese as they abandon their atoll nation. Frank
Farmer and I are co-directing her dissertation. The 'climate refugees' are an entirely new class of refugees for whom
international laws are vague or non-existent. Not only will citizens of island
nations be abandoning those places during this century, hundreds of millions of
people in low elevation coastal zones will be forced to relocate as sea-level
rises. It will be the largest human migration in history, and all those
refugees will need to be accepted by someone. It's a nightmare. Steve Boss
March 17, 2010
CORRESPONDENCE WITH JOANNA, ROBERT, CCTF
Dick,
I love this idea. Attempting to address the issue of climate
change refugees was the impetus for the "Full Circle
The forum could be another chance to raise funds for those climate change refugees (Kenya ). The CCTF is planning to
have a presence at the UofA and city Earth Days...I wonder if we could plan to
have the forum the Saturday after Earth day. We could have this one at the OMNI Center
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:37:21 -0600
Subject: LOCAL ACTION FOR GLOBAL REFUGEES
From: jbennet@uark.edu
To: ggg73@hotmail.com
CC: robertjmca1@gmail.com; david.orr@cox.net;
gladystiffany@yahoo.com; nathan.wilson@windsofchangeit.com;
aubreyshepherd@hotmail.com
Shall CCTF plan a forum on Climate refugees? This could dramatize the climate crisis in
concrete human ways and the need for 350 PPM.
. Maybe Robert would want to
devote a no. of 350 PPM to it too at same time. We could begin by visiting the asst. dir.
of the local crisis management office.
Dick
Robert replied with a yes.
LOCAL/GLOBAL
MARSHALLESE
FUTURE OF A SUBMERGED MARSHALL ISLANDS
GLOBAL
. The Pentagon
already has plans for warming wars over food and water. For example, because Turkey is controlling the Tigris and Euphrates
at their sources, Iraq would be at war with Turkey were not Iraq so dysfunctional. The US Quadrennial Defense Review 2010 is the
first QDR to evaluate warming’s threat to US security. That is, the Bush admin. denied climate
change while militarily preparing for it.
Mexican and Central American refugees will increase, so the likelihood
of a Soviet Berlin Wall across the
US/Mex border is increasing. –Dick 2010
--Collectif Argos. Climate
Refugees. MIT P, 2010. Orig. ed. In French , Refugies climatiques, 2007,
and most of the data comes from the 4th IPCC Report of 2007 . Stories
and pictures document the phenomenon of populations displaced by climate
change—homes, neighborhoods, livelihoods, and cultures lost. The Inupiaq of Shishmaref on the northwest
coast of Alaska must move, as “Alaska is getting warmer
at an ever-quickening rate, with one of the fastest rising temperatures in the
world.” The inhabitants of flat
southwest Bangladesh face increasing floods from glacial melt, heavier monsoon rains, and the rising Bay of
Bengal, which acts as a brake on river
flows and increases the salinity of the soil.
.Lake Chad
has shrunk from 25,000 square kilometers to just 2,500, and now touches only
two of its original four countries.
Other areas threatened by warming discussed in the book: Maldives
in Indian Ocean; northeast Germany
along the North Sea; desertification in China
west of Beijing ; Polynesian Tuvalu; Nepal . An important issue mentioned several times
is the need to broaden the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) restrictive
definition of refugees to include persons displaced by global warming. --Dick
SEVENTY MILLION MORE
"There is also a whole new class of 'climate change
refugees,' estimated at some 70 million worldwide." P. 3 of Fellowship magazine (Winter
2010). The magazine includes the
article "Environmental Refugees: An African Perspective," on Chad 's
water shortage. --D
Peter
D. Ward. The Flooded Earth: Our
Future In a World Without Ice
Caps. 2010. Three years after publication still a frightening account of
coastal and even inland cities being inundated:
seas rising a massive three feet by 2050 and a catastrophic nine feet by
2100, and more recent estimates are worse. See Six
Degrees for a similar projection of what will happen to the planet and its
inhabitants as the temperature and seas rise. Ward also discusses
overpopulation, species extinction, feeding the displaced, and what we can do. --D
----Dyer, Gwynne.
Climate Wars: The Fight
for Survival as the World Overheats. Interv. Democracy
Now ( ?
). Basic fact: planet
warming. A 1 percent rise in
temp will produce 10 percent reduction in food. Without drastic reduction in C02 the planet
will heat 4 degrees by 2060. So Dyer
recommends geo-engineering (SRM: Solar Radiation Management) to give us time..
[ In contrast,
Vandana Shiva (Soil Not Oil) urges
drastic changes in economic system esp a change.from corporate to small
agriculture. She urges agreement to
Universal Declaration on the Rights of the Earth.] --D
Books with Some Comment
--Firor, John and Judith Jacobsen. The
Crowded Greenhouse. 2002. Barely mentions low islands and coastal areas.
--Guzman. Overheated.
One chapter on refugees.
--Lynas, Mark. Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. 2008.
Mentions Bangladesh , Botswana , Katrina ,
Pakistan , Peru .
--Bassey, Nnimo. To Cook a Continent. Because Africa, already growing poorer, will
be hit worse by warming than other continents and unable to adapt, industrial nations
must provide the money for Africa to avoid the
worst to be caused by CO2. Since it isn’t being given, some African
nations are suing the polluting nations.
Paskal, Cleo. Global
Warring. 2010.
--Henry Pollack, A World Without Ice. 2009.
Mentions Pacific islands and Arctic coastal villages.
--
FILMS
Documentary Investigates Plight of Millions of 'Climate Refugees' (Video) by Brian
Merchant, Brooklyn, New York 
on 02.18.10
Photo via CMA
The changing climate is causing upheaval and unrest on a
large scale--rising sea levels, more severe storms and flooding, and worse
droughts are already rendering populated parts of the world uninhabitable. In
some places, this is occurring just around, oh, right now. In order to raise
awareness of their plight documentarian Michael Nash has created the film Climate
Refugees. It's an apolitical (interviews from both John Kerry and
Newt Gingrich are included) look not at the intricacies of the science or
government policy, but at what's physically happening right now due to climate change.
Trailer's after the jump.
Even the trailer goes a long way in
putting a human face on climate change. Here's what the director himself has
said about the project (via the Daily Camera):
The human face of
climate change really is an untold story and the very reason I felt the need to
investigate. When I started this journey three years ago, there was very little
data on climatic migration. There seemed to be a vast amount of spin on both
sides of the climate change issue. I wanted to move beyond the politics and dig
into the truth of whether our climate was really changing and if it was, how
was it affecting humans? What I found was mass climatic migration. Victims
forced to relocate, unable to live on the land, either from short-term or
long-term climatic changes. Our changing climate seems to be all about water:
too much in some areas and too little in others.
Here's the movie poster:
The film was an official selection at this year's Sundance
Film Festival. I look forward to the wide release--projects like this are of
greater importance now than ever before.
Via Huffpo Green
More on Climate Refugees
Climate Refugees Could Number 1 Billion by 2050
U.S. Leads World in Climate Refugees
Climate Refugees Could Number 1 Billion by 2050
U.S. Leads World in Climate Refugees
Weather Report
The film
·
Credits
·
Awards
Similar Films by Category
- Environment
and Conservation | Aboriginal Concerns
- Environment
and Conservation | Arctic Region
- Environment
and Conservation | Climate and Weather
- Environment
and Conservation | Environmental Perspectives
Description
For many, global warming is something that is happening somewhere else to
other people, but for millions of
people, it is right at their doorstep. Weather Report journeys
across the globe—from the Canadian Arctic to Northern Kenya, from the U.S.
Midwest to China and India
Putting a face to the reality of global warming, the film illuminates the impact of recent climate change, delivering a new perspective to audiences worldwide. The question is no longer whether climate change is happening, but whether we can respond to the emergency before it's too late.
2007, 52 min 03 s
Putting a face to the reality of global warming, the film illuminates the impact of recent climate change, delivering a new perspective to audiences worldwide. The question is no longer whether climate change is happening, but whether we can respond to the emergency before it's too late.
2007, 52 min 03 s
- Directed
by
Brenda Longfellow
- Production
Agency
National Film Board of Canada
Sienna Films Inc.
Also
available in French
Also available
under
Awards
Bronze Remi Award
WorldFest - International Film Festival
April 11 to 20 2008,Houston - USA
WorldFest - International Film Festival
April 11 to 20 2008,
WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU LEGALLY
WHEN YOUR NATION DISAPPEARS?
[from Dick’s files:
Note from Robt. McAfee 2011]
U of A law school ass't.
professor D'Lorah Hughes. she didn't give a formal presentation (slides,
etc.) but she talked abouta national conference she had attended on the legal
impact of global warming, particularly its impact on sea level rise and island
peoples. it is an aspect of the issue i had never heard in depth before.we've
all heard the science and have discussed economic implications, possible armed
conflict situations, territorial disputes and the like but she gave an entirely
new and refreshing perspective. what DO you do when the country where you were
born, have an identity, history, culture, family ties and legal status, etc.
simply disapppears? what about legal liability, reparations, statehood,
resettlement, entitlements , options.....? i was at first pleased that the
legal profession was even considering this (i'm an ex litigation paralegal),
then totally engrossed in and riveted by everything she had to say. she is writing an article on the subject for
a law journal at the present time. she was a great speaker and donna and i both
enjoyed it. i have her contact
information if anyone wants to consider her as a potential speaker or interview
subject for a newspaper article, perhaps after her article is published.
focusing on individual's legal rights focuses attention on the face of global
warming. i encourage all of you to think
about this aspect of the global climate change picture.
[I also found a note from Joanna Pollock about 2 NPR
programs regarding the same subject. –D]
A Warming Planet Struggles to
Feed Itself
Justin Gillis, The New York Times
Excerpt: "The latest scientific research suggests that
a previously discounted factor is helping to destabilize the food system:
climate change."
READ MORE http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/6166-a-warming-planet-struggles-to-feed-itself
RELATED, THE UNITED NATIONS
GOOGLE SEARCH, FIRST PAGE,
AUGUST 5, 2013: IRO,
UNHCR, IRC, IRCO
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