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forced displacement
4 Signs of Hope in a Burning World
Rapid and radical decarbonization is possible and is starting to happen on a near-global scale, but it must proceed very much faster.
Aug 21, 2024
The recent wildfires in Greece started on Sunday 11 August in Varnavas, 35 kilometres (22 miles) north of Athens. By the time they were brought under control three days later, they had reached the capital’s suburbs, having burnt through 25,000 acres of forest.
Though the fires fortunately did not get fully into Athens, it was a close call. Similar extreme weather events—whether wildfire, drought, storm, flood, or heat dome—are now seen on a near-daily basis somewhere around the world, and are often more intense than even a couple of decades ago. They are the most visible elements of climate change’s shift into climate breakdown.
We are also seeing clear worldwide changes. Last year was exceptionally hot—the hottest year since accurate weather records were first kept in the 1880s—but this year is perhaps more worrying. 2023 was an El Niňo year; one in which the sea surface temperature warms by 0.5°C above the long-term average. It’s a climate phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years and leads to temporary air temperature increases across much of the world in those years.
The future really does look grim. A world of devastating weather events, unliveable cities, gross food shortages, mass migration, and global marginalization beckons.
The problem is that El Niňo has been fading since February, yet the global pattern does not show the anticipated easing of temperatures. Instead, we are seeing the opposite; 15 national heat records have been broken so far this year, as have 130 monthly national temperature records. As Costa Rican climate historian Maximiliano Herrera told The Guardian: “Far from dwindling with the end of El Niňo, records are falling at even much faster pace compared to late 2023.”
In fact, June this year was the 13th month in a row to set a monthly global temperature record, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, whose ERA5 satellite suggested that 22 July was the hottest day ever recorded on Earth. The World Meteorological Organisation, meanwhile, has reported that at least 10 countries have already recorded temperatures above 50°C this year.
The implications are clear enough. We are heading for a global disaster at a level frequently warned of but even more frequently ignored—whether by politicians, business leaders, or others—while the fossil fuel industries and countries that exploit oil, gas, and coal continue to argue that the problem is grossly exaggerated.
More than 50 years ago, economic geographer Edwin Brooks, in a much-quoted remark, warned of “a crowded glowering planet of massive inequalities of wealth buttressed by stark force yet endlessly threatened by desperate men in the global ghettoes.” His warning focused on economic inequalities and was made before the full impact of climate change was apparent, yet it is more timely than ever.
The future really does look grim. A world of devastating weather events, unliveable cities, gross food shortages, mass migration, and global marginalization beckons.
The task of avoiding this dystopic future is huge. Four years ago, a U.N. report identified the need to decrease carbon emissions by 7% a year until 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate breakdown. They are still rising, and the need now is for an annual reduction of at least 10%.
It is a predicament that will require a third societal transition. The first was the farming revolution over several thousand years and the second was the industrial revolution, which started close to four centuries ago and is still under way. The third will be learning to live within the limits set by the capacity of the world’s ecosystem to handle human activity, initially by preventing climate breakdown, which must be achieved in mere decades.
But there are some signs of hope.
The first is that climate science has come on by leaps and bounds in the past 40 years and there is much greater confidence in its predictions. This means intergovernmental panels—which have tended to be overly cautious about not exaggerating the impact of the climate crisis, due to a need to work in consensus—will able to be far blunter in their statements.
Then there is the evidence just about everywhere that climate breakdown is happening. The third reason is that the first two will combine to inspire more activists, both young and old, to act. Many are willing to engage in nonviolent direct action despite elite determination to maintain the status quo through harsh legal measures.
There is a fourth reason for hope: the extraordinary way that rapidly improving technologies mean it is so often (and increasingly) much cheaper to use renewable energy than relying on fossil carbon energy sources.
Rapid and radical decarbonization is possible and is starting to happen on a near-global scale. But it must proceed very much faster. Global net zero needs to be achieved by 2040, not 2050, and that means that richer states must aim for net zero by 2035 while providing funding to speed up the process right across the Global South. It is a huge task, but that is the way to prevent climate breakdown.
To put it in a wider context, three tasks face us all. The first is the most urgent: coming to terms with environmental limitations. The second is an evolution of the world economy to ensure a far more equal sharing of what we have, and the third is responding to security challenges without depending on the early use of military force.
It is a transformational task but thanks to the immediacy of climate breakdown there isn’t really any alternative. Luckily, for now, there is time to do it, just.
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Feeding Inspiration With the Refugee Olympic Team
These athletes are a testament to what people can overcome—but nobody should have to; hunger is manmade, and the solutions can be, too.
Jul 26, 2024
To meet the nutritional needs of 15,000 athletes and staff from 208 countries and territories, the 2024 Paris Olympics will need to prepare 40,000 meals every day—which adds up to 1.2 million meals, including 3 million bananas and 27 tons of coffee.
Their diverse sports demand very different requirements. Some athletes must maintain an exact weight, while others may need to increase their carbohydrate or protein intake. After all, nutrition fuels athletic performance.
And yet, some athletes come from places where malnutrition is a constant concern. In many parts of the world, hunger is deeply linked to conflict, which has been on the rise. More than 117 million people were forcibly displaced last year. It can create a vicious cycle, as many displaced people face hunger and uncertainty. But, their stories don’t have to end there.
As we prepare to cheer on the Refugee Olympic Team, we’re spotlighting accomplished athletes and their countries of origin—all places where Action Against Hunger runs programs that can help the next generation realize their potential.
Talent is everywhere, and it can become greatness when it is nourished. For proof, look no further than the Refugee Olympic Team. Launched at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, the team is a symbol of hope. This year, the team is composed of 37 athletes from 15 National Olympic Committees, competing across 12 sports. To be eligible, an athlete must be a top competitor in their sport and a refugee in their host country.
Action Against Hunger is familiar with the ongoing global refugee crisis, which has surged in recent years. Conflict is a major driving force behind the growing displacement, and more forced displacement equals more hunger—more than 85% of people living in conflict-affected countries are experiencing food insecurity.
As we prepare to cheer on the Refugee Olympic Team, we’re spotlighting accomplished athletes and their countries of origin—all places where Action Against Hunger runs programs that can help the next generation realize their potential.
Afghanistan
After decades of conflict and growing climate stress, 24 million Afghans, or nearly 60% of the population, need help to afford food and other basic necessities. Studies have shown that a majority of the population also is dealing with mental health challenges, which can be deeply linked to hunger.
A number of athletes originally from Afghanistan are part of the Refugee Olympic Team. We’ll be rooting for them:
- Manizha Talash is a breakdancer who now resides in Spain but has been reunited with members of her hip-hop community from Kabul.
- Farzad Mansouri’s sport is taekwondo. Born in Parwan, he was part of the Afghan Olympic Team in Tokyo 2020 before he had to leave his country due to safety concerns.
- Nigara Sha Heen was born in Afghanistan and currently resides in Peshawar, Pakistan. She is a judoka (someone who practices judo) and competes in the -70 kilogram category.
- Arab Sibghatullah also practices judo, and his love for the sport began when he was eight years old. Originally from Kunduz province, he now lives in Germany.
- Amir Ansari is a cyclist. Born in Iran, he grew up in Afghanistan before he was forced to flee in 2015. He now lives in Sweden and trains with the Stockholm Cycling Club.
Syria
Conflict has created a hunger crisis in Syria, where people are dealing with shattered infrastructure and soaring inflation. A full 6.7 million Syrians have been displaced, and 90% of the population lives in poverty, with 64% relying on humanitarian assistance to survive.
Here are some of the impressive Syrian refugee athletes we’re cheering on during the Olympics:
- Alaa Masso lived in Aleppo before he left the country in 2015. He now resides in Germany where he continues his education and is a competitive swimmer.
- Muna Dahouk began practicing judo in Damascus at the age of six. Forced to flee the country in 2019, she now lives in the Netherlands with her mother.
- Yahya Al Ghotany’s sport is taekwondo. He now trains with the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation’s Azraq Academy in Jordan.
- Both a long and triple jumper, Mohammad Amin Alsalami was born in Syria. Forced to leave his home country twice, he now lives in Berlin.
Sudan
Hunger has long been widespread in Sudan, and when civil war broke out last year, things became even worse. Sudan’s health system is under extreme stress and millions of people face crisis levels of hunger, yet only 30% of its hunger-related programs are funded.
In this year’s Paris games, two outstanding athletes originally from Sudan are competing on the Refugee Olympic Team:
- Musa Suliman competes in the 400 meter. Born in Sudan, he moved to Cairo at the age of nine and to Switzerland in 2021.
- Jamal Abdelmaji is a track athlete who ran the 5,000m in the 2020 Olympic Games. He fled Darfur as a teenager and now lives with a host family in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Ethiopia
Recently one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Ethiopia now faces one of the 10 worst food crises on the planet. Conflict and climate-related drought have taken a toll. An estimated 40% of its children under five are stunted, meaning that chronic or recurring malnutrition is preventing them from reaching typical growth milestones.
Here are two Ethiopian athletes participating in this year’s Refugee Olympic Team:
- Eyeru Gebru is a cyclist from Ethiopia who moved to France in 2021 in order to escape conflict at home.
- Farida Abaroge grew up in Jimma and is passionate about running, football, and karate. Forced to leave Ethiopia at a young age, Abaroge traveled through many countries before finally finding refuge in France.
These athletes are a testament to what people can overcome—but nobody should have to. Hunger is manmade, and the solutions can be, too. Together, we can create a world where every life is well nourished.
We hope you’ll join us in showing your support for athletes and refugees during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Cheer them on, share their stories, and post about them on your socials. Note the link between nutrition and performance in sports and in life, celebrate the talent that can emerge from hardship, and help bring attention to the tens of millions who still need support.
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We Need to Take Trump's Threat to Deport Millions of Migrants Seriously
Racist, violent, and genocidal rhetoric inevitably drives the process of forced expulsion, and Trump churns out a daily chorus of murderous bile that must bring a smile to Julius Streicher's corpse.
Jun 27, 2024
We often trivialize former U.S. President Donald Trump's racism—we consider his bigotry in passing while ruminating at length on his legal woes and alleged cognitive deterioration. Social media pundit David Pakman has been showing clips of Trump slurring his words or rambling chaotically on a daily basis—as if the primary threat posed by another MAGA presidency would be to allow an incompetent, confused, and mentally ill bungler to have another go at the Oval Office. One hears the word "unfit" tossed in Trump's direction with monotonous regularity, but unfitness may be the least of our worries.
Trump's drooling tirades should not be seen as a reflection of creeping Alzheimer's dementia—there is an inevitable and intentional structure to his meandering tale about sharks, the virtues of autocrats and gangsters, and the somnolent and absurd boasting of personal omnipotence. No matter how silly, pointless, or psychologically damaged Trump's soliloquy may appear to be, his rambling narrative returns to an epic promise: Trump vows to deport some 11 million so-called illegals from U.S. soil.
The obsession with mass expulsion has emerged at various times in history—in Rwanda, in pre-World War II Nazi Germany, in Turkish Armenia, in Palestine, in 19th-century America, in Bosnia, in Somalia—one could go on and on. Fourteen million ethnic Germans were expelled from Eastern Europe after World War II—the death count from that forced transfer of people has been estimated along a range from half a million to two-and-a-half million.
If one is nominally familiar with the history of genocide, Trump's memes and obsessions become ominously familiar.
There is an enormous and bloody climax forthcoming once mass expulsion leaps from being an act of political theater in the mouth of some ambitious autocrat, to becoming actual state policy. Once a nation assembles the bureaucratic and military force needed to move masses of people from their homes and communities—children and families—the act of genocide looms as a likely conclusion. Whether it is the mass extermination of Tutsis, Native Americans, Jews, Croatians, Armenians, Palestinians, or Yazidis, we should be exquisitely aware that genocide often follows on the heals of forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious "others."
There has been an ongoing international debate since the year that Trump was born (1946) as to whether or not mass expulsion should be added to the five defining features of genocide that comprise Article II of the United Nations Genocide Convention.
We all should know the basic history. in October of 1938 the Nazi government arrested and moved 17,000 Polish Jews, residing in Germany, across the Polish border. The Polish government did not welcome these refugees, and they languished in terrible conditions without adequate food or medical care. As an act of revenge, Herschel Grynszpan—whose family had been deported to Poland—assassinated Nazi official Ernst vom Rath in Paris. This led directly to Nazi anti-Jewish retaliation—Joseph Goebbels' speech on November 9 of 1938 initiated massive state orchestrated violence against Jews (Kristallnacht) and the subsequent arrest of 30,000 Jewish men to be incarcerated in the burgeoning Nazi concentration camp system.
The Armenian genocide featured the deportation of prominent Armenian intellectuals at the behest of the Ottoman regime. This act, ordered and carried out in April of 1915, delineated a new policy of clear genocidal intent.
In recent decades, the Indigenous people of Bangladesh have been systematically removed from tribal lands and subjected to murder, beatings, and sexual assaults. The escalating genocide of the "Adibashis" follows a familiar pattern. Mass expulsion makes territory available to colonial settlers.
The Nakba of 1948 drove some 750,000 Palestinians from their homelands under the assault of Israeli military forces. Like the Bangladesh intrusion into Indigenous lands, the Israeli policy targeted long-term inhabitants to make room for growing settlement. This mass expulsion now, 76 years later, plays out in the current genocide perpetrated by the Netanyahu regime with U.S. military aid lavishly provided by the Biden administration. Many of the Palestinians expelled from what is now Israeli territory wound up in Gaza, and their descendants now lie under the rubble created by U.S. bombs.
Racist, violent, and genocidal rhetoric inevitably drives the process of forced expulsion, and Trump churns out a daily chorus of murderous bile that must bring a smile to Julius Streicher's corpse. He refers to refugees at the southern border as vermin, animals, monsters, invaders, murderers, rapists, and drug dealers. He tells us that unsupervised American kids will be brutalized by marauding hordes from "countries we've never even heard of." Latin countries, Trump gleefully informs his followers, systematically empty their prisons and transport all of their psychopaths to the southern border. Do we take Trump's assertions to be easily debunked bromides—unhinged nonsense—or do we regard Trump's verbal routines as genocidal preparation?
Article II of the U.N. Genocide Convention defines genocide as:
a) Killing members of the group;
b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
A peer reviewed paper published in The University of Dundee (UK) Student Law Review concluded:
The discussion of the highly contentious and heavily debated topic of the inclusion of forced expulsion in Article II of the Convention is ongoing, and is likely to continue for many years to come. Decisions of international courts and tribunals have established the position of the law today—forced expulsion is only included as a contributory factor in a system of conduct directed against a particular group, or as an indicator of genocidal intent. However, it is likely that the law will progress, much like it has already progressed with regards to other acts, so that forced expulsion in itself will one day be established within the scope of Article II of the Genocide Convention.
It is unfortunate that forced expulsion is not yet included in Article II of the Genocide Convention. If one is nominally familiar with the history of genocide, Trump's memes and obsessions become ominously familiar. This story has been written and rewritten. We all know how the plot unfolds and how it ends.
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