Climate change and the migration crisis: the connection must be acknowledged.

It’s irrefutable, people around the globe are fleeing their homes and countries as a result of climate change. In fact from an anthropocentric point of view, migration is the thing that globalizes the climate crisis. Civil unrest is most often the result of a population dissatisfied with their livelihoods. When this is from lack of resources from changing regional climate, migration happens. Take for example the Syrian war. As Bernie Sanders recently again noted and many have written about throughout the years (see NYT’s The Other Arab Spring by Thomas L. Friedman), the Syrian crisis is in part the result of climate change. Civil unrest was ignited by drought in the region resulting in agricultural collapse. This pushed many into the cities to compete for jobs and resources. Some have taken issue with this stance noting that other factors were at play. Of course, migration is multicausal. Most are not suggesting otherwise. Rather, the effects of climate change further expose the existent social and political vulnerabilities, inadequate policymaking, and oppressive power structures. This is what climate change will do and vulnerabilities exist in every country. Others argue that this explanation is far too simplistic and that we need to explore the intricacies of the situation. Of course we should recognize the context and nuance. So let’s take a step back, stop arguing, and start learning. Let’s looks elsewhere - take the mass migration into the southern border of the U.S. Lauren Markham’s April 2019 piece in @guardian highlighted how again the economic instability was further burdened by climate change: ‘These things are all complicated and further compounded by the fact that the northern triangle of Central America – a region comprising Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, and the largest sources of asylum seekers crossing our border in recent years – is deeply affected by environmental degradation and the impacts of a changing global climate’. When it comes to climate policy, we need to stop dwelling on the nuance as a means to avoid action. We need to recognize that some countries are more capable of managing their vulnerabilities than others, and allow those most impacted to take refuge.