The unseen driver behind the migrant caravan: climate change

Thousands of Central American migrants trudging through Mexico towards the US have regularly been described as either fleeing gang violence or extreme poverty.

Honduran migrants taking part in a caravan heading
to the US, walk alongside the road in Huixtla, Chiapas
state, Mexico, on 24 October.

But another crucial driving factor behind the migrant caravan has been harder to grasp: climate change.

Most members of the migrant caravans come from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – three countries devastated by violence, organised crime and systemic corruption, the roots of which can be traced back to the region’s cold war conflicts.

Read the story from The Guardian - “The unseen driver behind the migrant caravan: climate change.”

Health experts slam Turnbull government's air pollution proposals.”

Gina McColl writes
about air pollution.

Doctors and health experts have criticised a government review of vehicle emissions and air pollution for under-reporting the health risks, sidelining the Minister for Health, and potentially putting thousands of Australians' lives at risk.

Australian fuel quality and emissions standards are "appalling", the atmospheric and respiratory specialists say. Of the 35 countries in the OECD, our petrol quality is ranked last, below Mexico, Turkey and Estonia.

Draft proposals to address these quality concerns were quietly released days before Christmas by the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg, and the Minister for Urban Infrastructure, Paul Fletcher.

The review acknowledges 1483 premature deaths in 2012 were due to outdoor air pollution (a sharp increase from 882 in 2005), about half of which could be attributed to road transport pollution. It indicates the cost to the Australian economy from these premature deaths at $7.8 billion

Read Gina McColl’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Health experts slam Turnbull government's air pollution proposals.”

The 'sword of Damocles' maybe the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet

For half a century, climate scientists have seen the West Antarctic ice sheet, a remnant of the last ice age, as a sword of Damocles hanging over human civilization.

The great ice sheet, larger than Mexico, is thought to be potentially vulnerable to disintegration from a relatively small amount of global warming, and capable of raising the sea level by 12 feet or more should it break up. But researchers long assumed the worst effects would take hundreds — if not thousands — of years to occur.

Now, new research suggests the disaster scenario could play out much sooner.

Continued high emissions of heat-trapping gases could launch a disintegration of the ice sheet within decades, according to a study published Wednesday, heaving enough water into the ocean to raise the sea level as much as three feet by the end of this century.

Read Justin Gillis’s story in The New York Times - “Climate Model Predicts West Antarctic Ice Sheet Could Melt Rapidly.”

Latin America is showing the way

The most recent scientific evidence suggests that if we do not start taking immediate action, the planet’s average temperature will be 4 °C higher than current levels by the end of the century. The problem is that measures designed to address this reality tend to incur political costs.

A story published by the World Bank and headed: “Latin America, Pioneering Laws to Cope with Climate Change” said: “Mexico stands out among them (the 33 countries affiliated with Globe International); the first developing country, the only one in Latin America and the second one in the world to have passed a General Law on Climate Change, approved in 2012.”