Tag Archives: climate change

Borders in a Borderless World

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You know the story: We live in a flat, globalized and increasingly borderless world. The global economy is interwoven to a degree that may have been unimaginable a few decades before. However, it’s not a borderless world for many of the world’s refugees. Due to dire circumstances at home many people wish to emigrate from their countries. At the end of the year 2010 the UNHCR counted more than 15 million refugees worldwide (and even more are internally displaced people).  Many countries are trying hard to keep their borders shut for these refugees. Think of the fence that seperates the United States from Mexico. Think of the Southern European countries that try to prevent refugees from entering the European Union or think of pictures from the boat people that try to get from Southeast Asian countries to Australian shores.

If you are searching for answers you should immediately stop reading this blogpost. I’m writing these lines not because I’d like to announce solutions but rather because I myself am searching for some answers. Perhaps you can help?

I was motivated to write this blogpost when I saw this video on The Guardian’s website. It is a short portray on a Somali refugee who went to Libya. Then again he had to flee to Tunisia because of the heavy fightings in Libya last year.

Now this is, unfortunately, a story that we know although I doubt that the majority of us can understand what kind of hardships these refugees suffer from. But what I ask myself is what will happen if the number of refugees will constantly increase? There are predicitons that by the year 2050 there could be between 150 million and 1 billion climate refugees. How will the world’s nations face this challenge? So far, it seems like they plan to fence off their territories.

Border fence between India and Bangladesh

Border fence between India and Bangladesh. Photo taken from lepetitNicolas on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

One of the most vulnerable countries when it comes to climate change is Bangladesh. It is a densely populated country and one fifth of the country could be flooded by the end of the century. As a result, millions of Bangladeshi people could be affected and they could opt for escaping to India. In the 1980s India started to build a fence along its border with Bangladesh. The fence stretches out over 2000km.  But will climate refugees who lost their homes and their land be deterred from a fence? What would India do in this case? How will other countries react in case millions of refugees would like to cross their borders? Will we experience that a borderless world holds only true for goods and capital but not for human beings? And do industrialized countries who are mainly responsible for climate change have the moral duty to accommodate millions of climate refugees? What do you think?

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ADDENDUM

On the day I published this blogpost I asked people from India via Twitter whether they know anything about debates in India regarding the border fence and the consequences for future climate refugees from Bangladesh. Here is what my FutureChallenges.org colleague Anuja Upadhyay replied:

No …haven’t heard on future climate refugees being talked about. But on the border fencing is claimed to be necessary … to prevent illegal narcotics, cattle smuggling, illegal migration, cross border human trafficking from Bangladesh. The killing of the 15 year old  to be bride from Bangladesh who was trying to cross the border and other violence by BSF(border security force) soldiers (from  India) was highlighted by indian mediahttp://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article2826161.ece?css=print; http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/04/indias_border_bangladesh but a lot more by Bangladeshi and foreign media.

Last year when the Home Minister P. Chidambaran went to Dacca he promised that the BSF would not use non -lethal weapons when patrolling. it is said that firing incidents have come down by 70%. Bangladesh home minister Shahara Khatun’s visit to India in from 23-25 Feb this year. Here’s a link to both minister addressing the media after their talks http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2928357.ece. there are a lot of other issues too  between Bangladesh and India like extradition  treaty between the countries,Teeta river water issue( u can google it up if you want)

Of course climate change and environmental degradation in bangladesh will be a push factor for migration …but I haven’t seen it discusses so much .since I am not an expert I can find out as I am planning to  meet some one( expert working in these  areas)  for a write up on disasters/climate change  and  new democracy.

Climate Change? Heard of it…

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The German public broadcaster ZDF recently aired an insightful documentary whose title could be translated by „Burnout – The Exhausted Planet“. It highlighted the multifaceted impacts that climate change will have – while in some regions these impacts can already be felt. Security issues and migration flows are just two of these issues that are directly connected to climate change.

In spite of this documentary I am really surprised how little attention traditional German media pay to climate change. I would suggest that it’s not different in other countries. Please correct me if I’m wrong!

I am getting lots of information on climate change from sources like Twitter, Facebook pages or blogs. And I would like to add that this is anything else than useless information. But why aren’t traditional media more intensely reporting on this?

- Changing diets in order to eat less meat would be of utter importance to mitigate climate change

- For a long time it has been obvious that the goal of keeping the global temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius won’t be possible.

- There are already areas that are suffering from severe water shortages due to climate change, one example being Lima in Peru.

This list could be continued but I will leave it like that. My basic argument is that this information should be distributed more widely. It shouldn’t be restricted to Internet users who  search websites and social media for news.

Don’t get me wrong. I really appreciate all those very useful sources on the Internet that deal with climate change. Actually, I think that they are helping a lot in raising awareness (and we can all help to disseminate this information by sharing it). Sometimes you stumble upon very creative works that are aiming at raising awareness for the consequences of climate change. See for example this impressive cartoon by the DiploFoundation:

Nevertheless, reports on climate change have to be taken up by traditional media as well. What will be the consequences if we don’t act now? Where can we already see the impacts of climate change? What should we all do (not only our governments) in order to mitigate climate change? These are important questions and it won’t be sufficient that only Internet users are aware of these developments. We can only act if we are informed. And being informed means much more than only having heard of it.

Any Need of the Truth About the Climate?

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Yesterday more than 9 million people around the globe watched presentations and discussions about climate change in the course of The Climate Reality Project which was broadcasted via Internet livestream from places in the world’s 24 different time zones.

My naive impression when I first heard of this event was a lack of understanding. In the second decade of the 21st century, in the light of extreme weather phenomena and an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community (all national academies of science around the world regard climate change as human-induced) we need such a big event to „share the truth about the climate crisis“?

But watching some videos and reading the comments via Twitter and Facebook on the Climate Reality Project’s homepage it became clear to me that there still seem to be quite a few climate deniers. The most absurd sentence I heard that day was „Climate Change? Come on, god makes the climate“. Sorry, I didn’t know that. Does he also emit greenhouse gases? I think it was on Fox News but I don’t remember whether it was a TV host or a Congressman. Anyway, obviously there is still a long way to go to unite humanity in its efforts to mitigate climate change.

The challenge seems to be twofold. In some countries there is obviously a need to convince a number of climate skeptics of the fact that our industrialised world is responsible for climate change and when you saw the Climate Reality Project you will have the feeling that many of them are located in the United States. In other nations there is a consensus that the industrialised countries are mainly responsible for the causes of climate change which does not mean that actions taken are sufficient to mitigate it. One reason for this is that the effects of climate change mainly effect people in the developing world and not in the polluting countries.

Getting to know how other countries have to adapt to the harmful consequences of climate change could help to raise awareness that the time for concerted action is now. In this regard, the Climate Reality Project is a helpful and laudable project.

This video is from Canberra in Australia. Find others on http://www.climaterealityproject.org


Video streaming by Ustream

Climate Change and Greening Cities

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When it comes to climate change policy you would certainly think of the common actors like nation states or the United Nations and its agencies. But there are other actors that can make a huge difference in case they coordinate actions against climate change: Cities.

The Economist has recently reported that 10 American cities are members of the “Large Cities Climate Leadership Group” (which comprises 58 big cities around the world). Chicago for example has adopted the Chicago Climate Action Plan (CCAP) which aims to reduce the city’s greenhouse-gas emissions to 75% of their 1990 levels by 2020 and to 20% of their 1990 levels by 2050.

Urban areas can make a huge difference in fighting climate change since the majority of the worlds’ population is now living in cities. In the future we will see more and more megacities entering the stage. If local governments take action on this issue this would be very helpful in reducing worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

Taking this into account it is important to stress that there are no “one-size-fits-all approaches”. It is important to find “local solutions to global challenges”, which is a claim the ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability is promoting. The organization encompasses more than 1200 local government members from more than 70 countries. It is an association that serves as a focal point in order to help cities to share knowledge and to build capacity regarding sustainability issues. Here you can check whether your city is already member of the ICLEI.

Fighting climate change is not an easy task. We can witness it every year when countries come together to discuss the future of the Kyoto protocol and other issues regarding climate policy. In the light of these shortcomings on the international climate arena today’s cities and tomorrow’s megacities can contribute to fight climate change. If you would like to know how a sustainable urban future could look like you should watch the Urban Future website.