Scholars predict fifty million
people will be displaced within five years by rising sea levels,
desertification, dried up aquifers, and other serious environmental change. The
term "environmental refugees" has increasingly been invoked over the last two
decades to describe growing waves of people displaced by environmental problems.
Host Steve Curwood talks with Andrew Simms. He's the Policy Director of the New
Economics Foundation in the United Kingdom and the author of a recent book
entitled, "Environmental Refugees: The Case for Recognition".
CURWOOD: Fifty million people forced to migrate by environmental calamities.
That's the prediction of some scholars of the number of people who will become
"environmental refugees" within five years, thanks to rising sea levels,
desertification, dried up aquifers, and other serious environmental changes.
And it has officials at the United Nations University in Germany urging the
international community to take responsibility for these displaced people and
the problems that drive them from their homes.
Among those putting out that call is Andrew Simms. He's the Policy Director of
the New Economics Foundation in the UK and author of the book, "Environmental
Refugees: The Case for Recognition." We caught up with him at a café in London.
Thanks for taking the time, Mr. Simms.
SIMMS: You're welcome.
CURWOOD: Fifty million. Who are these people, and where are they coming from?
SIMMS: What we're looking at are people who are forced to flee their homes
primarily because of environmental push factors. Now, this could be anything
ranging from desertification, deforestation, extreme weather events, floods and
droughts. Natural events relating to the Earth's hydrological cycle. And with
even the most modest scenarios for global warming showing significant rises and
increases in the intensity and probably frequency of extreme weather events,
certain parts of the world which are highly populated – along coasts, along
rivers – are going to become much harder places to live. Some areas where people
are dependent upon rain-fed agriculture farming, especially in some parts of
sub-Saharan Africa, are going to find life difficult, if not impossible. So
every projection points to the fact that the number of environmental refugees is
going to grow and grow significantly.
CURWOOD: Everywhere from Louisiana to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh, huh?
SIMMS: Well, I think that's right. And in some places, in some of the more
exposed places like small island states in the South Pacific, it becomes a
matter of life and death. So people who are living in highly vulnerable and
highly exposed areas. There are places in the world, such as Tuvalu, where they
have already negotiated internationally with New Zealand a program for planned
long-term relocation of population. So it's a reality, it's not just a theory
being bandied about between environmentalists.
CURWOOD: Now, let me talk to you about this term "environmental refugee." Up
till now people have tended to use the word "refugee" to refer to people who are
fleeing wars and persecution. You write that we are now living in an age of
environmental persecution, and that's why we should call these folks refugees.
What do you mean by environmental persecution?
SIMMS: In the way that persecution is termed in international law regarding
refugees, if a particular group of people are effectively persecuted as a
consequence of known policies pursued elsewhere then they can claim refugee
status. Now, we've known about, at least, the chemistry of global warming for
well over a hundred years. We've known now for a matter of decades the direct
consequence of the profligate use of fossil fuels in such a way that there's a
strong human fingerprint in climate change, which is driving these extreme
weather events, which are going to lead to people needing to cross borders.
Once you've got known cause and effect, and known consequence, I think it's fair
to say that people living in areas that are vulnerable specifically to
climate-related environmental change deserve the protection of the international
community. Now, the only way that's going to happen, the only way that the
countries overwhelmingly responsible, the high energy using countries, are going
to be forced to pick up the tab is if they have a legal obligation.
It's important also to point out that it's already the case in the world that
the vast majority of refugees, the economic burden of dealing with refugees,
falls upon poor countries. Now, in an age of ever-growing numbers of
environmental refugees, that will also be the case. So the people who are least
responsible for producing the problem, specifically in the case of climate
change, will bear the largest burden of having to pick up the tab.
CURWOOD: Who are the environmental persecutors, in your mind?
SIMMS: Well, I think, not a case of in my mind, it's pretty much down in the
record books, if we were to look through the per capita emissions figures you've
got the advanced industrialized nations at the top. Countries like the UK,
countries like the United States, most of the other European countries. The huge
inequities in terms of fossil fuel use are there as a matter of record, a matter
of fact.
CURWOOD: You've talked a lot about climate change as being a push factor for
environmental refugees. What are some of the things that make people into
environmental refugees besides global warming?
SIMMS: Well, you're looking at the things that make life extremely difficult. It
could be deforestation, it could be because a particular natural resource has
been overexploited, it could be through the industrial exploitation of a
particular type of new approach to farming. There might be areas along the coast
of Bangladesh where the introduction of intensive shrimp farming may so
contaminate the indigenous resources that they're driven on. There's countless
reasons but, overwhelmingly, the largest one is that driven by the Earth's
hydrological cycle, which is intimately linked to the fate of global warming. So
global warming is the big one.
CURWOOD: Now, do you think this effort, that is, to officially recognize
environmental refugees, will actually gain traction? I mean, if it's adopted in
some sort of formal way international organizations and governments will have to
take responsibility for these folks. Perhaps take more responsibility for the
underlying problems, as well. It's something which I would think that many of
them may not be that eager to do.
SIMMS: Well, I think you can look at it in one of two ways. You can either kind
of wait for the problem to happen, with all the international and security
implications and the upheaval that that will represent in terms of the
unprotected and unmanaged flow of people across borders. Or you can choose to do
something about it, which you can deal with the problem in a planned and orderly
fashion. The latter would seem to be sort of hugely preferable to the former.
But however we decide to approach it in a legalistic manner, the most important
thing to keep focused on is that it's a problem that exists and it's a problem
that's going to get worse, and unless we manage it it's probably going to manage
us.
CURWOOD: Andrew Simms is author of the book entitled "Environmental Refugees:
The Case for Recognition." Mr. Simms, thanks for joining us.
SIMMS: Thank you.
