Rising Tides: Climate Refugees in the Twenty-First Century

273 Pages·2017·6.589 MB·English

by  John R. Wennersten and Denise Robbins

R I S I N G
T I D E S
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John R. Wennersten
and Denise Robbins
R I S I N G
T I D E S
Climate Refugees in the Twenty-First Century
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of The paper used in this publication
meets the minimum requirements of
Indiana University Press the American National Standard for
Office of Scholarly Publishing Information Sciences—Permanence
Herman B Wells Library 350 of Paper for Printed Library
1320 East 10th Street Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
Manufactured in the
iupress.indiana.edu United States of America
© 2017 by John R. Wennersten Cataloging information is available
and Denise Robbins from the Library of Congress.
All rights reserved ISBN 978-0-253-02593-7 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-253-02588-3 (pbk.)
No part of this book may be reproduced ISBN 978-0-253-02592-0 (e-bk.)
or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including 1 2 3 4 5 22 21 20 19 18 17
photocopying and recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing
from the publisher. The Association
of American University Presses’
Resolution on Permissions constitutes
the only exception to this prohibition.
This book is dedicated to my wife, Ruth Ellen,
and our global family
John R. Wennersten
To my mother
Denise Robbins
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Part one Climate Refugees in
the Twenty-First Century
Introduction 3
1 Seeking Shelter from the Storm 15
2 Refugeedom 36
Part two Pressure Points and Regional Analysis
3 What Happens When
Your Country Drowns? 57
4 The Crisis Hits Home:
Climate Refugees in the United States 75
5 Latin America: Land of Rain, Land of Thirst 105
6 Africa: Environmental Conflicts
in a War-Torn Land 130
7 Middle East: The Boiling Point of
Climate Change and National Security 157
8 Asia: The Looming Crisis 189
Part three Policy Implications and Conclusions
9 Current Affairs and Climate Refugees 219
10 The Shape of Things to Come 234
PREFACE
Climate change has been on the public radar for years, thanks in part to
documentaries and news reports like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
The most crucial element of this problem, however, extends far beyond
the natural environment; it affects all of the people on this earth. There
is little public concern about the people who will be displaced and cast
asunder on the planet as the result of climate change. In developed coun-
tries many do not see climate refugees as a pressing issue; others see
climate change and refugee populations through the national lens of
homophobia and nativism. The fate of the polar bear in an age of global
climate change generates more public concern than the fate of millions
of lives.
In writing this book we have sought to offer a critical survey of climate
refugees in the twenty-first century and to discuss the problematic and
hopeful aspects of the issue. The most difficult problems in the future
will be not only getting the public to accept climate change as a rationale
for massive population displacements but also to convince governments
to thoroughly address the issue. The world has a moral duty to protect
those who are forced to flee, whether by war, famine, or climate change.
Global climate change and global refugee crises will soon become
inextricably interlinked. The climate is changing and the pace of that
change has been increasing at rates that have startled geophysicists, de-
mographers, and the general scientific community. A new tsunami of cli-
mate refugees flows across the earth. We are now at the moment of truth.

ix