Category: Climate refugees

Climate refugee “crisis” alive and well

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Longtime readers know that a few years ago I posted some stories (see our ‘climate refugee‘ category) about the on-going conflict within the UN “community” about changing the definition of refugees to incorporate those people the “sustainability” movement claims will be flowing by the millions as the sea levels rise!

The whole thing is so silly and just a clear ploy for the first world to pay big bucks to the third world, or to open ones’ borders to the teaming (economic migrant) masses.   But, I see the pressure is still on to broaden the definition of refugee to include anyone running from the weather.

By the way, this is the definition of a refugee as set by the UN Refugee Convention in 1951:

The 1951 Refugee Convention establishing UNHCR spells out that a refugee is someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”

The “humanitarian” refugee advocates objected at the time I was writing some posts on the subject (and probably still do!) to watering down the definition to include weather migrants.

But, here is a pitch by a  blog called “Sense and Sustainability” promoting the idea (again) of changing the definition of “refugee.”

Somali refugees displaced from their homes by floods cross a swollen river in Kenya. But, are identified as “climate refugees!”
Brendan Bannon/AFP/Getty Images

Human displacement due to climate change will be the “defining issue of our times!”  Really!

According to the UNHCR 2012 publication “The State of the World’s Refugees,” human displacement as a result of climate change will be “a defining issue of our times.” Environmentally induced migration and displacement could reach unprecedented dimensions, with predictions ranging from 25 million to one billion by 2050.

Despite global concern for those displaced by climate change, “climate refugee” remains merely a descriptive term under the UNHCR’s international refugee regime. The 1951 Convention does not account for people fleeing natural disasters, and thus confers no legal obligation of asylum on States. Even defining the term “climate refugee” poses problems, as this type of displacement can be attributed to many factors, including scarcity of land resources, political pressures, and natural hazards. While climate change may exacerbate these problems – causing more frequent extreme weather events or gradually reducing agricultural productivity – it is virtually impossible to separate climate causes from other drivers of migration. Accordingly, no established methodology exists for calculating the actual number of people displaced by climate change.

Whatever quibbles statisticians may have over the numbers, one thing is clear –millions of people remain displaced and unaccounted for as they do not fit neatly into the UNHCR’s definition of refugee. Is it a matter of renaming this category of people to fit within the international refugee regime? Or, in a warmer world, must the definition and understanding of the concepts of ‘refugee’ and ‘protection’ adapt?

There is a nice example here about Vietnam attempting to solve its own flooding problems (no proof that global warming makes the Mekong Delta wet!) without resorting to caterwauling that their citizens should be sent to the first world (although we are still taking “political” refugees from Vietnam, a practice that should have ended decades ago).

Sense and Sustainability goes on:

We must continue to seek durable solutions for this group, one of the world’s most marginalized refugee populations. We see in this population the human face of climate change, and we must accommodate this emerging breed of refugee within international frameworks. In the name of climate change, we have adapted our infrastructure, our lifestyles, and our understanding of sustainability.  Why not our definition of refugee?

About the photo:  It was used to illustrate this 2006 article about the coming weather migrant hordes with absolutely no proof that “climate change” made this river rise!  Let’s just put some Africans together in a photo with water and it will prove to the gullible public that global warming is real!

Israel: Climate refugees are coming! Close the borders!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I can think of a lot more pressing reasons for Israel to close its borders, but climate change works.

I hadn’t seen any ‘climate refugee’ stories lately (but I kind of thought the “crisis” had gone away!).   This is a very worthwhile read from the Jerusalem Post in which the “deterioration” of Africa is discussed.   In the US, mainstream environmental advocates (so entwined with the hard Left) would never use saving the environment of the homeland (or saving the country!) as a reason to close the borders.

JPost:

In order to combat increased waves of illegal migration that will likely accompany climate change, Israel must secure its borders through impassable barriers, including “sea fences” along the Mediterranean and Red Sea, experts have concluded.

“The lack of water, warming and sea level rise, even if it will occur on a different schedule, will bring migration movements from all impoverished regions to every place where it is possible to escape this,” wrote a team of academics, led by Prof. Arnon Soffer and Dr. Anton Berkovsky of the University of Haifa’s Geography Department.

The team’s conclusions appeared in just one “geo-strategy” chapter in a nearly 200-page report of recommendations toward adapting to climate change, submitted collectively by about 100 experts at the Israel Climate Change Knowledge Center to Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan on Monday.

Be sure to let the snakes through!

Among its suggestions for how to handle the geo-strategic implications of climate change, the team led by Soffer called for a complete enclosure of Israel from all directions, including establishing sea fences along the Mediterranean and Red seas. In addition, the experts said that additional law enforcement will be required to deal with the ramifications of securing the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, as economic crisis might ensue for Negev Beduins who trade across these turfs. While securing Israel from all sides, however, the authorities must ensure for the safe passage of animals and plants.  [Snakes needing free passage are mentioned later in the article—ed].

“The migration wave is not a problem for the future. It is today, it is going on now,” Soffer told The Jerusalem Post on Monday evening. “It will just increase from day to day.”

Read the article.  There is some discussion about how European countries are ruthlessly turning back immigrants, but frankly I don’t see that.  Heck, just as one example, Africans are landing on Malta it seems every day—some are then being moved on to other European countries (here is one story about France giving the red carpet treatment to new French voters from Malta).

Why the UN is so hot on pushing the climate refugee issue

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Reader John Williams sent us a link to an insightful post  on the Volokh Conspiracy that explains the motives of the UN on the climate refugee issue that we’ve started to follow again. 

We are used to reading such stories as the politicization of science and its corruption by the politics of the UN, funders, and, to be sure, the desire of some scientists to switch professions from research to policy.  We hear about it because it is correct.

But there is another — no less unimpressive — way to understand the story.  That is from the standpoint of the long term incentives of the United Nations and its many agencies.  Seen from the standpoint of climate change and its scientists and environmental activists alone, this story looks to be about hyperbolic claims about the immediate effects of climate change.  Seen from the standpoint of the longer history of the UN, it is much more about the long-running movements by the UN to find issues that tend to do two things.  One is to increase the institutional UN’s governance responsibilities, authority, legitimacy, and power.  The other is to increase the amount of money that runs through UN mechanisms from rich countries to poor countries, with an administrative cut to the UN itself.

He goes on to point out that environmentalists and others who are pleased when the UN takes up their cause are not aware of these motives, and don’t understand that UN officials don’t give a fig about their particular cause. When the current one has run out of steam, they just move on to another one. Now they’re trying to prolong the climate refugee cause by postponing the date of the apocalypse.

Whoops! UN tries to hide the nonexistent 50 million climate refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is hilarious.  Anthony Watts at the Daily Caller has a piece called The UN ‘disappears’ 50 million climate refugees, then botches the cover-up.

The piece I posted about on April 14, What happened to the climate refugees? has been picked up by several media outlets, and the UN has tried to take the map of “at-risk” places off the internet. The Daily Caller relates their failure, and ends its piece thusly:

And there you have it, folks, another bogus climate claim rubbished by reality, followed by an inept cover-up attempt.

Thanks to the reality of census numbers, followed by the UN’s handling of this, we can now safely say that the claim of “climate refugees” is total fantasy. Be sure to leave comments on any website that makes this claim, and link to this and the Asian Correspondent website.

Kudos to Gavin Atkins for asking this simple question after six years of this fantasy being used to push an agenda.

Update: The UN now says that there will be 50 million climate change refugees by 2020. [The date was originally by 2010. I suppose they can keep postponing the date into eternity.–Judy]

Remember the climate refugees?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For a while we heard a lot about climate refugees. Ann put up 18 posts on the subject — see the category in the list to the left.  Here’s a recent post from Gavin Atkins at Asian Correspondent.com, What happened to the climate refugees? He begins:

In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010. These people, it was said, would flee a range of disasters including sea level rise, increases in the numbers and severity of hurricanes, and disruption to food production.

He links to a map that shows the places said to be at risk for producing climate refugees. Then he goes down a list of at-risk places that have had censuses since 2005 and shows that their populations have grown since then. Some are islands — the Bahamas, the Seychelles etc.  And —

Meanwhile, far from being places where people are fleeing, no fewer than the top six of the very fastest growing cities in China, Shenzzen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhuhai, Puning and Jinjiang, are absolutely smack bang within the shaded areas identified as being likely sources of climate refugees.

Similarly, many of the fastest growing cities in the United States also appear within or close to the areas identified by the UNEP as at risk of having climate refugees.

In fact, in general those places identified as at-risk for producing climate refugees are growing fast.

The first comment is from the Spokesperson for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), who says it wasn’t his agency that projected the 50 million figure. But —

That does not mean there are not environmental refugees including climate ones. But we do not have any projections ourselves.  There are however quite a lot of universities/research centres around the world trying to unravel this complex issue.

The second comment is more entertaining:

Fortunately, in January 2009, the oceans began to recede and the planet to heal.
 
Actually it’s more than entertaining; it’s pretty perceptive. It’s amazing how many problems became non-problems as soon as Barack Obama took office.
 
Hat tip: James Taranto