The global climate refugee crisis has already begun

When Hurricane Florence struck the shores of North and South Carolina and Virginia, more than a million evacuees fled their homes seeking shelter from the storm. For some, there will be no return home, as their homes are damaged beyond repair or beyond what they can afford to repair. All these displaced people are not simply evacuees fleeing a dangerous hurricane. They are climate refugees.

Climate refugees are already a reality.

There are a couple of reasons why climate change is creating a new category of refugee. First, climate change contributes to rising seas. As ocean water warms, it expands. That, along with simultaneous increased melting of the world’s mountain glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, contributes to rising sea levels. Sea level rise is already one factor producing climate refugees around the world.

Read the story from The Hill - “The global climate refugee crisis has already begun.”

Disaster alley’: Australia could be set to receive new wave of climate refugees

Australia could be on the frontline of a new wave of “climate refugees” displaced by extreme weather events, droughts and rising seas, a US expert on the national security impacts of climate change has warned.

A king tide crashes through the sea wall, flooding
 Pita Meanke’s family home on the low-lying
South Pacific island of Kiribati.

Sherri Goodman, a former US deputy undersecretary of defence, argues the impact of climate change – rising seas, extreme weather, prolonged droughts – will be a “threat multiplier” for sepacurity challenges, and could be the spark that ignites conflict and drives new waves of mass forced migration.

The Asia-Pacific region was acutely vulnerable, she said.

“You may be on the frontlines here in Australia for climate refugees,” she told the Guardian in Sydney. “The first wave will be those who have to flee the low-lying Pacific islands, because many of them will be uninhabitable, even in our lifetimes.”

Read Ben Doherty’s story on The Guardian - “‘Disaster alley’: Australia could be set to receive new wave of climate refugees.”

Another climate change first

Climate change “firsts” have been and will be many.

Climate refugees arising from rising sea levels that flood small islands and pollute potable water supplies will be just the beginning.

Climate Progress reports a small town on Taro Island — the capital of Choiseul Province in the Solomon Islands — is planning to relocate its entire population in response to climate change.

The report, headed: “Meet The First Pacific Island Town To Relocate Thanks To Climate Change”, notes that it is the first time that a provincial capital in the Pacific Islands will have done so.