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Today's Top News
Surge of Climate Change-Caused Mass Migrations to Hit Asia-Pacific
Inaction will lead to "humanitarian crises"
Over 42 million people in the Asia-Pacific region were displaced by environmental disasters in just the past two years, and a report issued today gives a stark warning that these nations are set to be hit with a surge of climate change-caused mass migrations and must act quickly to avoid future humanitarian crises.
The report, Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific (pdf) from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), highlights “environmental hot spots” in the region at particular risk of disasters such as flooding and typhoons. While some migrations will occur within countries, the report expects many migrations to cross nation lines and therefore recommends greater international cooperation for dealing with the crises.
(photo: Asian Development Bank)
“The environment is becoming a significant driver of migration in Asia and the Pacific as the population grows in vulnerable areas, such as low-lying coastal zones and eroding river banks,” said Bindu Lohani, ADB’s Vice President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development. “Governments should not wait to act. By taking steps now, they can reduce vulnerability, strengthen resiliency, and use migration as an adaptation tool rather than let it become an act of desperation.”
The report also looks at the disproportionate impact climate change has on women, stating that it is "far from gender neutral:"
Climate change impacts and the use of migration as a coping strategy are far from being gender neutral. The stronger relationship between women and poverty and between women and vulnerability to environmental impacts, and the fact that women in many countries of Asia and the Pacific (particularly in the developing countries) are less powerful than men, means that environmental impacts are strongly gender specific. There is a disproportionate risk to women from natural disasters. More women than men die in severe storms in flooding because of a lack of mobility due to gender barriers, the fact that women are less likely to know how to swim than men, and other factors (Oxfam 2005).
And:
It should be noted that environmental disasters can increase women’s exposure to the risk of human trafficking. The vulnerability of women and girls to exploitation, illegal trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence is often greater in the aftermath of such disasters, as their families and livelihoods are lost or disrupted. A recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report draws a link between environmental disasters and human trafficking, with a notable increase in trafficking after such events (UNEP 2011).
The report concludes:
Uncertainties—especially uncertainties regarding the number of potential migrants—should not be an excuse for inaction. Extreme environmental events already displace millions of people each year in Asia and the Pacific. Many of these become migrants. Their numbers will grow, and the patterns of their migration will evolve over time, particularly as slow-onset environmental change, such as drought and sea-level rise, registers its impact on human settlements. Unfortunately, international cooperation to address the cross-border aspects of such migration remain inadequate to the task at hand and the challenges yet to emerge. Thus, it is urgent to address this issue proactively through policy, projects and financing at all levels of government. Failure to give serious, timely attention to the issues involved will result in otherwise avoidable humanitarian crises.
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35 Comments so far
Show AllThat's why they call it global warming. Climate refugees are crossing borders far in advance of any ability to deal with global problems.
In contrast, as per news reports in 2008, one Swedish town, Södertälje, alone had taken in more Iraqi refugees than the USA and Canada combined.
From the report cited in the article, "Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific",
>>Globally, 8 of the 10 countries with the greatest number of people living in low-elevation coastal zones are located here (i.e., Pacific, South Asia, and Southeast Asia). The 2011 Vulnerability Index assembled by the risk advisory firm Maplecroft, shows that Asian and Pacific countries represent 6 out of the 10 most vulnerable countries worldwide, all ranked as countries at extreme risk. Bangladesh tops the list, followed by India (2nd), Nepal (4th), Philippines (6th), Afghanistan (8th), and Myanmar (10th).
There are also substantial flows between the countries of the region (South Asia), in particular from Bangladesh to India... Indeed, it has been suggested that this is the largest single international migration flow, with more people involved than estimated for top-ranked Mexico-United States migration flows. <<
On the commuter train yesterday, a young woman put a BIG drink on the seat next to her so she could handle her equally big and messy sandwich (You're not allowed to eat or drink on the train and the sense of that soon became apparent.) When the train pulled out of the station the drink gushed out all over the seat and floor. She yelled in considerable anger, cursing not her own stupidity (trains do tend to move, after all) but the train agency--I guess for not arresting her before the drink could spill or for not having cup holders and seatback trays, maybe. She changed seats and went on eating.
When the person etc is particularly unhealthy s/he or it takes it one step farther and performs actions that tend to turn the projected-on object into what s/he thought they were in the first place. Projective identification. The US and USSR did it for years during the cold war, turning each other into untrustworthy collectives with designs on conquering the world.
It's said to be a "primitive" response, but once attuned to it you see it everywhere. People in the US, particularly, feel rootless; they feel a "poverty of spirit" not met by consumer "goods", they feel any number of things inside and then act to create those conditions in the outer world, uprooting farmers in Mexico with industrialization of agriculture, for example, so they come here.
Climate change promises to create rootless, poverty-stricken people all over the world, so the unhealthy people and culture of the US can see how they handle it and try to absorb the attitudes and behaviors thus created (in an attempt to see the problem solved in other people and then solve it in themselves). Of course this is all unconscious, in both projecting and receiving parties, and so it hardly ever works. The projectees don't know any better how to solve the problem than the projectors and in any case are prevented from doing so by the projectors. So the ante has to be upped, and the cycle tried again. And again. And so it goes, unconsciousness spreading unconsciousness, untreated and unnoticed, destroying the world.
We need to get aware, and start treating the illnesses of our fellow humans through loving acceptance (don't tell me how hard it is; I know), symbolic communication, jumping out of the system and above all, calling attention to it. It becomes more clear every week that we won't survive another 5 generations without doing this.
I don't think the major players in the corporate extractive model yet realize that the way of being and mind set that claims exception from what is down the road is not a matter of degrees of manifest destiny.
The pseudo-social illusion of exceptionalism is so far removed from the root of life, that continued dominance of such a failed construct is not going to render a world anyone will want to live in. I pray for an awakening in the most elemental sense.
Direct democracy
If we consider that within a few more years, possibly before the year 2020, every human on this planet may be dead, we certainly could term that a “humanity crisis“.
I believe I have written and posted the following here previously, but being an old guy I sometimes suffer from senior moments and forget things… So if I haven’t written it previously I will write it once more, as it is such a “fun” subject.
If world leaders and the top scientific brains on this planet do not act immediately to find a safe method of stopping the Arctic ice and permafrost from melting away further and do that very, very soon, the once frozen methane gas in the Arctic’s sub sea permafrost will escape from the melted permafrost into the atmosphere and cause global warming to become so severe that it could kill all of us.
If only a few billion tons of the 1.5 (trillion) tons of methane in the small area of the Arctic, the East Siberian Shelf area releases, we are all done…. If the entire 1.5 trillion tons releases, the planet is done… It will become Venus number 2 in this little solar system.
This is the all of science that we need to understand… If something is trapped in ice and the ice melts, that something will be loose... If that something is methane gas, the methane gas will enter the atmosphere.
Two billon tons of methane gas is equivalent to 205 billion tons of Co2. A billion tons a year escaping into the atmosphere for three years and we humans will be on the verge of extinction.
Now I personally do not know of any other pending issue which is more serious than that pending threat.
Pending issue? __ Well top level scientist are quite certain at the current rate of Arctic ice melt, that the Arctic Ocean will be ice free by 2015. That leaves the sub sea permafrost open for rapid melting.
That is how it is… Anyone here willing to gamble that what I have written is not correct? And no it is not my wish to be correct.. My wish is we could get our world leaders to believe it and not gamble it is incorrect.
The well proven sicentific fact and KEY to all of it is… When ice melts, (anything) that was trapped in the once frozen ice is loose…. We’d better act now,,,, we will not get another chance and time if now very short.
How do I know a billion or more tons of methane gas will anually release from the melting sub sea permafrost? __ I don't know, I am not a wizard. Nobody knows... I only know it is more than just possible... We shouldn't gamble on it. ..
However; if every human on Earth stopped having sex today, and no more babies were born on the planet nine months from today, the Arctic sea ice will still reduce by a great deal and lots of methane gas will release into the atmosphere's greenhouse gas mixture during the next nine months.
That killing disaster will continue on and accelerate with more methane gas escaping from the Arctic permafrost every year after.... That is without question our most serious issue. No other pending issue is going to eradicate life on Earth.
We have to do a whole lot more than just stop having babies,,, lots, lots more!
Over population is only a problem because of what we are doing to the planet. In the five small bread basket areas on the planet enough food could be grown to feed five billion people... There is a whole lot more crop land left over besides those five small bread basket areas.
The problem is we are destroying our forests, acidifying and killing the life in our oceans, contaminating our planet with human created chemicals and atomic waste and DU and not using a crop such as hemp to manufacture 100% biodegradable plastic, diesel fuel and 5,000 other commercial uses which are non polluting.
We are killing ourselves by (burning coal) and destroying our forests and spreading deadly radioactive particles into the environment, killing off wildlife, fish and humans.
If we managed our resources properly, this planet could easily support 20 billion humans, but five billion would be much better... We have less than three years to stop burning coal world wide, plant billions of trees or we will not survive as a specie. Neither will the aardvarks, polar bears, birds and bunny rabbits….. That is how it is.
Perhaps not. But don't forget about H5N1 lurking in the wings...of birds, and other animals. With a kill rate of 60% or better, a global pandemic will result in the end of the world as we know it.
Those things (*might*) happen... The Arctic methane releasing (*will*) happen unless strong swift action is taken to prevent it and 60% dead is a lot better than 100% dead.
There is a major difference between (might) and (will).
I do not see where 6 out of 10 people dying would create a mass extinction of life on Earth.. It would be (possible) to save the human race from extinction with a decent gene pool if there were only four women and three men left alive.
Anyway the fact is, the Arctic methane threat is the most serious pending issue humanity faces.
Now tell us, if you knew for a fact that the bird flu virus was going to strike in the next five years would you wish to see some action taken to prevent it? I would.
How about the sure fire bet that when ice melts the methane locked in it is free. Would you prefer something was done about it? I would.
Hey, in 1957 my wife and I damn near died during the swine flu outbreak.. Our temps were 106 one full day and the only treatment available was sit in a tub of cold water and take lots of aspirin... It lasted four days for us and lots of people died, most survived..... It was not near as bad as this new bird flu virus.
If there ever is a bird flu pandemic, I believe the survivors will be the 1%, people in the medical fields and the military and a few million sheep to sweep the floors, clean the swill buckets, curry the horses and herd the cattle. .
queerplanet.
You continually post these falsehoods then disappear when you're corrected with the facts. Do you have the courage to respond this time or do you know you're wrong but have done your job in raising doubt about the real problems and solutions and can now retreat as always?
No science is required for us to observe with our own eyes what is happening as the planet continues to warm to the extent it has so far and cause the disastrous climate changes that are just beginning to surface... It will continue and become far worse every year from now on.
You may wish to alleviate you incredible ignorance by studying some text books which explain how the Earth's atmosphere works before you continue to write nonsense on a subject you so clearly are not educated about.
You have managed to open the door for fun discussion however… I wondered what screen name the next to show up GW denier would use. .. You write so much like the compulsive liar ~Hey Duck 2000~.
From "The climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it's working" by George Monbiot,
>>When I use the term denial industry, I'm referring to those who are paid to say that man-made global warming isn't happening. The great majority of people who believe this have not been paid: they have been duped. Reading Climate Cover-Up, you keep stumbling across familiar phrases and concepts which you can see every day on the comment threads. The book shows that these memes were planted by PR companies and hired experts.
The first case study I've posted reveals how a coalition of US coal companies sought to persuade people that the science is uncertain. It listed the two social groups it was trying to reach – "Target 1: Older, less educated males"; "Target 2: Younger, lower income women" – and the methods by which it would reach them. One of its findings was that "members of the public feel more confident expressing opinions on others' motivations and tactics than they do expressing opinions on scientific issues".
Remember this the next time you hear people claiming that climate scientists are only in it for the money, or that environmentalists are trying to create a communist world government: these ideas were devised and broadcast by energy companies. The people who inform me, apparently without irony, that "your article is an ad hominem attack, you four-eyed, big-nosed, commie sack of shit", or "you scaremongers will destroy the entire world economy and take us back to the Stone Age", are the unwitting recruits of campaigns they have never heard of.<<
More on the AGW denial industry by George Monbiot:
* The denial industry case notes
* The denial industry
* Attacks on climate scientists are the real 'climategate'
* Failure to catch climate email hacker is the real scandal
>>tonyryan wrote: "Wallow in your theories if this makes you happy but try and inflict this on we, the people, and expect hard core retaliation."<<
What is the real "source" for this sentiment? Do you even question the credibility of your sources?
Recently there was talk of the so-called Roman Warm period and the Little Ice Age in this forum. So you are willing to trust proxies that show certain regions were warmer at a certain point in time, but you don't want to accept other proxies that show that the present time is warmer than any other time in recent history and the only way to explain this warming is by considering the effect of AGW?
Anyway, as for the "Little Ice Age", you might be interested to know about one theory that states,
European conquest of the Americas may have driven global cooling
>>"Recovery of forests following the collapse of human populations in the Americas after the arrival of Europeans may have driven the period of global cooling from 1500-1750 known as the Little Ice Age, report researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. By some estimates, diseases introduced by Europeans may have killed more than 90 percent of population on the New World within a century of first contact. The rapid depopulation led to large-scale abandonment, and subsequent reforestation, of agricultural lands in the Americas. Analyzing charcoal found in soils and lake sediments at sites across the Americas, Richard Nevle and Dennis Bird found evidence to suggest that this forest regeneration sequestered enough carbon to trigger global cooling."<<
In other words, genocide actually caused a slight cooling. Same with an earlier period in history:
How Genghis Khan cooled the planet
So, if you are into conspiracies, as you most certainly seem to be, you might want to start thinking about a possible elite plan to actually let global warming happen, while fortifying themselves, stocking up on native seed varieties in the so-called 'Doomsday' seed vault (even while pushing GMO crops on the rest of the population) and while putting in place plans to control the remaining population, including all kinds of surveillance technologies, the means to kill from a remote place, etc., and most of all, expanding the reach and control of the empire like crazy, with willing stooges and accomplices in positions of power in many countries, so that they can have total control after a horrible depopulation takes place due to catastrophic effects of climate change.
Stop being an unwitting tool of an evil campaign, for God's sake!
Notice the scientific ignorance displayed by those who make it a point to go to any comments on climate change and toss about their ignorance for all to see.
If it were just ignorance, it wouldn't be so bad. Ignorance has an easy cure: education. But willful ignorance, the unwillingness to learn, to take advantage of the vast amounts of information available in this world is unconscionable. It's a form of fundamentalism, a stolid insistence that one point of view is the only valid point of view, information, data and experience be damned.
Those who spend an inordinate amount of time on the Internet, and insufficient time in the real world, begin to think that all information is equal. They eschew critical thinking and thus cannot distinguish between fact and fantasy. They have no experience with the scientific process, so all they can do is blather on about what's in their heads, not what is demonstrated moment to moment in the fully functioning Universe.
It's sad. I no longer read their posts. I've stopped interacting with them, because they are incapable of rational discourse, they consistently resort to inane, juvenile personal attacks. They reveal their ignorance with every post. They do more discredit to themselves in one post than a carload of scientists could do in a fortnight.
Keep your mind at work, pay attention to the patterns. Ask questions. Think.
A typical piece of pretzel-logic from Hayduke2000: a personal attack decrying personal attacks.
This from the font of fossil-fuel sponsored climate science denial, an ignoramus who expects to overturn 188 years of physics with nothing more than surreptitious pearls from Anthony Watts denying the existence of a greenhouse effect. Nobody around here needs a lecture in objectivity from the likes of Hayduke2000, who has been caught out in enough deliberate deceptions to no longer merit any benefit of the doubt. Hayduke2000 is up to no good: neck deep in disinformation, in ecocidal hate-speech. Everybody around here knows what he is: an anti-science bigot.
Falsely attributing climate and other ecological and social problems to the growth of population among darker people IS racism. (Your use of the term “the white race” is troubling evidence alone/) But the point of it being racist is that it's also false. Racism and classism are just (among) the reasons the false attribution happens. It's unconscious for the most part so racists don't think they're racist; they think they're right. The numbers prove otherwise.
No ratios are exploding. (wha-huh? what does that even mean?) In fact, population growth is slowing almost everywhere in the world. We should help it slow and stop asap, but reducing population itself is the work of centuries, not years or decades Have to stop global warming in the next 20 years at the most, by reducing GHG emissions by 90% AND recall those already emitted by reforesting and increasing the carbon content of soil with organic agriculture.
Tell me what population plan will solve the climate problem, when 80% of the emissions have come from 7% of the people on Earth, the ones at virtually ZPG, while the ones still growing (at half the peak rate of the 1960s) have very little effect ecologically, Everything you think is caused by population growth is actually caused mostly by the unequal consumption of the rich (us). Education of women is one good way to reduce population growth; equality, empowerment of all, security in sickness, hard times and old age are all important. The increasing inequality caused by the defensive measures of the rich against encroaching peak oil, ecological destruction and climate change are making all this worse, so to eventually reduce population we have to make the world more politically and economically more equal and reduce the effects of the consumption of the rich. Renewable energy, reforestation, a transformation of agriculture and diet…
J4Zonian wrote:
Epigrammic, that one. If you don't mind my saying so.
That is a link for an NOAA article about sea level rise.. It was not written by some corrupt lying TV weatherman like Anthony Watts, which are the type of articles the Global Warming Deniers use to spread disinformation and outright lies about the most deadly serious subject humanity has ever faced,,,, global warming and it‘s dire effects for everyone. .
What else does that NOAA article say about global warming causing sea level rises Daffy?
Pehraps you could tell us all again how the sun is causing the global warming and not the added atmospheric Co2 and methane gas human activity is responsible for? __ "Quack, quack, quack, it's the solar cycle, quack, quack, quack, it's the solar cycle, quack, quack, quack, it's the solar cycle", says Hey Duck 2000.
Perhaps you could tell all again how I wollow in shit and come up smiling with shit all over my face and spout off misinformation about how the atmosphere of Earth works... "Quack, quack, quack,,,,, quack".... F/O Daffy Duck!.
http://oilbeseeingyou.blogspot.com/2010/08/methane-hydrate-risk-in-our-p...
http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/12/important-organism/.
There are well worth reading.
But, I woke up and saw that most are still "sleeping"...... Looks like a hellfire hot summer coming up this Spring.
All women acting together planet-wide might be able to...
More misleading lurid headlines from Common Dreams staff. Has Common Dreams not heard about unbiased journalism?
The story is not about climate change. It is about human population growth. Risk of environmental "disaster" is a function of more and more people living and developing human infrastructure in areas prone to extreme weather events.
Read the article carefully before expounding on hyperbolic deeply held Global Warming beliefs.
If you don't appreciate Common Dremas writers, you know how you got in here so you should know how to get your lying ass out of here.
The headline is very appropriate and accurate.... It is rapidly accelerting global warming which is causing sea levels to rise, primarily in the equatorial areas of Earth and flooding low elevation areas and causing the people who live there to move away from their homes.... Were it one family or a million families, areas which have been flood free for centuries are now flooding.
Your continual repeating the lies of ~Anthony Watts~ and his corrupt followers puts you in the sams corrupt croud as they are and you are as welcome as a rabid skunk in a pre school playground.
Just letting you know in case you were unaware of how it is... Start your own website and write away with your lies until your brains run out of your ears.