It’s Getting Hot In Here

As the death toll and displacement from Bangladesh’s Cyclone Sidr continues to rise and more island nations are threatened by . As Josh wrote on the 2 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, there are still 30,000 people displaced from Hurricane Katrina, now living all over the US, many waiting for homes to be rebuilt or wondering if it is really safe to return. The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment report made clear that sea level rise will be much higher than originally projected (at least 1 meter from thermal expansion alone and potentially 6 to 7 meters with collapse of ice sheets in Greenland and the West Antarctic), with significant rises this century! But climate refugees will not only be migrating from our coastal areas or island nations.

Today, at a climate dialogue in Delhi, the city’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and IPCC Chairman RK Pachauri presented another perspective. Already Delhi has immigration of .5 million people every year, to a city whose infrastructure and natural resources are already taxed by the current population of almost 16 million. Pachauri emphasized that the migration of villagers to Delhi would certainly increase as agricultural livelihoods become harder to support. With increasing droughts and increasing floods, the rainfed agriculture that supports millions of India’s population will be severely threatened. Pachauri asked: “Where will these poor farmers go?” answering that the movement of these climate-displaced would continue to accelerate the process of urbanization already so rapid in India.

I look forward to sharing more ideas that came out of today’s talk about the role of cities in addressing climate change, but I wanted to share the idea of climamigration. Millions will be displaced by climate change not only directly but indirectly as well, and I doubt if our world’s cities and countries are prepared or even beginning to prepare for this influx. As the US presidential candidates debate immigration policy and climate change, I wonder if they should not be considering them simultaneously? What responsibility does the US have to provide homes to climate refugees, displaced by the results of our nation’s historical emissions?