Learn about climate migration.

Jami Nakamura Lin
Written By Nicole Cardoza

It's Tuesday and the world is still on fire. For many of us, global warming has never felt so urgent as it does now. And as we think about how to save the future, we can't forget that millions already impacted by environmental disasters are still in need. Today, Jami introduces the concept of climate migration to the newsletter. She explains how the vulnerable communities on the frontlines of environmental crisis need to be at the center of our path forward.

Some of you received incorrect key takeaways in yesterday's article on tax inequity. My mistake.You can find them updated on our archives.
 
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TAKE ACTION

  • Support people and organizations fighting for climate justice, not just against climate change. Check out Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (@gcclp) and your local members of the Climate Justice Alliance (@cjaourpower).

  • Hold corporations--and the governmental bodies that enable them-- accountable for their actions. Companies benefit when we only focus on our individual actions (recycling, shopping, etc.) instead of corporate culpability.

  • Investigate the politicians on your ballot. What are their positions on the Green New Deal? On immigration? On social justice? These issues all affect climate migration.

  • Read more about international climate migration and American climate migration in ProPublica.

GET EDUCATED

By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)

The wildfires blazing across the West Coast have brought climate migration back to the forefront of many American’s minds. This year, almost 8000 fires have burned over 3.6 million acres of land in California alone (Cal Fire), and many residents are wondering whether they can stay (CNN). Whether they should stay. Or whether they should pick up and move away from their families and communities, joining the ever-growing climate migration across the globe. 

Climate migration refers to the movement of people due to climate change-induced environmental stressors, including heat, drought, and natural disasters. This is already happening globally; in 2018 alone, 17.2 million people were recorded as internally displaced (within their own countries) by environmental disasters (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre). But according to researchers, almost 162 million Americans will experience a “decline in their environment, namely, more heat and less water” within their lifetimes (NY Times). Another study predicts that 1 in 12 Americans in the South will have to move within 45 years due to environmental factors (Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists). While such migration will eventually affect everyone on earth, it matters to anti-racism work because of what communities are most affected. Climate change disproportionately affects communities of color, developing countries, and low-income and underserved populations (NAACP).

“It is important to acknowledge that those impacted the most by the climate crisis are victims to decades and centuries of norms, values, regulations, behaviors, and policies that have made it this way today,” wrote Chanté Harris in a previous newsletter on climate change. Hurricane Katrina is an excellent and terrible example. In the New Orleans area alone, 272,000 Black people were displaced, comprising 73% of the parish’s total displaced population (Congressional Research Service). Across the Gulf South, a lack of affordable housing has made it impossible for many former residents to return to the area. 

In 2015, a decade after the disaster, there was only one-third as many public housing apartments in New Orleans as before the disaster, while housing costs in general New Orleans rose 40% (AmnestyUSA). The same year, a survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation/NPR showed that white residents and Black residents had had very different experiences after the crisis. 70% of white residents were able to return to their homes within a year, while less than half of Black residents were able to. Additionally, around half of both the Black and low-income populations did not believe recovery efforts had helped them. In contrast, about two-thirds of both the white and high-income populations thought that recovery efforts had helped them. (Kaiser Family Foundation). Read more about how climate migration will reshape America in New York Times Magazine. 

After such disasters, people— especially people of color and those below the poverty line—have to pick between two terrible choices: to remain in their homes and communities (places that will likely be struck by disaster again, with governments that choose not to prioritize their recovery), or to leave. Internationally the situation is even more dire. In India, 600 million people are already facing a water crisis, whether because of drought or degradation of water quality (National Geographic). Each year, runoff declines and water becomes scarcer (Climate Institute). Such events are leading to mass climate migration across the globe at the same time as nationalistic immigration policies rise in the West (ProPublica). Here, yet again, the climate crisis goes head-to-head with America’s racist, xenophobic laws. Read ProPublica’s report and model of climate migration across international borders.

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Our cities and our communities are not prepared. In fact, our economic system and our social systems are only prepared to make profit off of people who migrate. This will cause rounds of climate gentrification, and it will also penalize the movement of people, usually through exploited labor and usually through criminalization.


Colette Pichon Battle, founder of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, an organization that “advances structural shifts toward ecological equity and climate justice in Gulf South communities of color.” Watch the rest of her TED Talk here.

Climate migration shows the necessity of climate justice, a movement that focuses specifically on addressing racial and socioeconomic inequities and transitioning away from our current toxic, exploitative economy. (Later, we’ll do a deeper dive into climate justice, but for now, check out the Just Transition Framework for Change from the Climate Justice Alliance.) 


Issues like climate change can feel insurmountable for us individuals to deal with. We don’t always know what to do in response. And indeed, many well-meaning initiatives (like banning plastic straws) can shift the focus onto individual culpability instead of corporate accountability, while having their own unintended side effects (NPR). But what I do know is: there is power in community action. We cannot rely on our government or on a top-down plan of action. Look at the member list at Climate Justice Alliance for organizations in your area. Support them—by volunteering your time, money, or social media feed. And when you think or talk about climate change or climate migration, make sure you remember the ways that racism impacts the climate crisis.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Because of climate change, many areas are becoming uninhabitable for humans. The shifting environment is leading to climate migration across the globe. 

  • In 2018 alone, at least 17.2 million people were displaced by environmental disasters (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre).

  • Climate change disproportionately affects communities of color, developing countries, and low-income and underserved populations (NAACP).

RELATED ISSUES

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Nicole Cardoza
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