(Reuters) October 14,2009 – International law is unfit to deal with the millions of people expected to flee their home countries to escape droughts and floods intensified by climate change, a group of lawyers said on Thursday.
Under existing laws, host countries must protect and care for cross-border refugees, who are defined as those forced to migrate because of violence or political, racial or religious persecution.
There are no such provisions for so-called climate refugees. Yet by 2050, between 200 million and 1 billion people could be forced to leave their homes because of global warming, said the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, which advises vulnerable countries and communities.
“International refugee law … was not designed for those who are left homeless by environmental pressures,” said the group’s director Joy Hyvarinen.
“The international legal framework needs to be adjusted to help climate exiles and deal with statelessness and compensation,” she said in a statement.
FIRST CLIMATE REFUGEES
Climate change will hit small island states the hardest, the foundation said, adding rising seas might submerge Kiribati and the Marshall Islands or climate changes in other ways might make them uninhabitable.
(Blog Action Day) “Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.
Why climate change? Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees.
Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, we think the
blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilize millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis.
From the smallest online journals to huge online magazines, Blog Action Day is about mass participation. Anyone is free to join in on Blog Action Day and there is no limit on the number of posts, the type of posts or the direction of thoughts and opinions.”
(Al Jazeera) October 10, 2009 – In the middle of the world’s largest delta, an island is disappearing.
Bhola Island is the “ground zero” of climate change, and home to what have been called the world’s first climate refugees.
Bangladesh’s largest island is located where one of the country’s mightiest rivers, the Meghna, meets the Indian ocean at the Bay of Bengal.
Caught between rising sea levels and the increased water pressure of the river, which has its source in the melting Himalayan glaciers, the island is rapidly being eroded.
Rezaul Chowdhury from the Coastal Association for Social Transformation Trust (Coast) explains: “Every second, this river carries one million cubic feet of water down through the Meghna and around Bhola island.
“All of the siltation gathered by the waters in South Asia meet in the Bay of Bengal, along Bhola island, creating the highest amount of river erosion in Bangladesh.”
International scientists count Bangladesh as one of the countries worst hit by climate change.
The country loses an estimated 100 square kilometres of land to river erosion ever year, and nowhere is the situation more dire than on Bhola.
Thousands homeless
Since 1995, half of the island has succumbed to erosion caused by heavier waters and rising sea levels.
Here is a quick update regarding the latest round of the UNFCCC Climate Change Talks. About 2,500 international delegates from 180 countries just wrapped up the 12-day talks in Bangkok, with the goal to narrow down the 200-page draft agreement to something
more manageable for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December. This agreement will be the successor the expiring Kyoto Protocol global climate deal.
There are now two entries in the latest version of the negotiating text relating to climate change and human mobility. The entries call on nations to implement and finance plans to adapt to climate change by accounting for possible migrations. The first is now found on page 38 in paragraph 26(f) and is as follows:
(f) [[Means to protect] [Activities related to national and international [migration of]
[displacement of] [planned relocation of] [responses to]] [climate [refugees] [migrants]]
[persons] [individuals and peoples] [displaced by] [affected by] [extreme climate events]
[the [adverse] impact of climate change].]]
The other entry is on page 41 in paragrapgh 35(q) and reads as follows:
(q) [Activities related to national and international migration and displacement or planned relocation of persons affected by climate change.]]
There has not been much progress made from the previous version of the text, as both are still bracketed which means it’s still flagged for approval by Parties. Addressing the media on the final day of the Bangkok session, executive secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo de Boer spoke of a constructive two weeks of talks, and said that “all the ingredients for a successful outcome in Copenhagen are on the table”. However, there is no guarantee as of yet, that the entry relating to climate migration will remain in the final agreement. The last session before Copenhagen will be held from November 2-6 in Barcelona.
A historic Works Progress Administration photo of children on Isle de Jean Charles. Photo credit: New Deal Network.
(Facing South) October 7, 2009 – For at least 170 years, Isle de Jean Charles — a narrow ridge of land lying between Bayou Terrebonne and Bayou Pointe-aux-Chene in southeastern’s Terrebonne Parish — has been home to members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha tribe, native people related to the Choctaw and part of a larger confederation of Muskogees.
But the tribe’s history is about to take a dramatic turn due to climate change.
Albert Naquin, chief of the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha, recently announced that the group plans to leave its ancestral island homeland and build a new community behind levees on higher ground. He told the Associated Press the decision came because the community was flooded five times in the past six years. About 25 families now live on the island, a number that’s fallen in recent years due to the constant flooding associated with global warming.
The state-recognized tribe hopes to use about $12 million in federal aid to build 60 homes in Bourg, a community about 10 miles inland, according to the AP. Officials with Terrebonne Parish and the state of Louisiana still have to approve the relocation plan.
The plight of the Biloxi-Chitimacha people of Isle de Jean Charles illustrates the suffering already being experienced worldwide due to climate disruption.
