Introduction
Global warming is happening and it is current form of climate change, its effects are beginning to show on Earth today. Climate change has happened in the past on this planet but it is now happening a more rapid pace, and scientist believe this is due to how humans treat this Earth (bbc.com).. The Greenhouse Effect is a natural effect of Earth’s atmosphere that traps heat in the atmosphere and warms the Earth. However, due to the burning of fossil fuels from humans since the industrial revolution humans have increased the Greenhouse Effect. This causes the Earth to become warmer which has many effects on climate. According to an article from BBC.com, over the past 100 years, the average temperature of Earth’s surface has increased by .8 degrees celsius, .6 degrees celsius in the past three decades. The same article predicted through computer simulations, by the end of the 21st century global surface temperature will reach an increase of 1.5 degrees celsius. This surface temperature increase will of course cause many more effects for Earth and its species but scientists believe the global surface temperature change of 2 degrees celsius will make the climate change effects very dangerous. (BBC Source).
The increase of Earth’s global surface temperature are having effects such as; sea level rise, an increase in the intensity of hurricanes, increased droughts, and increased wildfires. These effects are causing humans to relocate and leave their homes in order to survive. (ENIDAY.COM). These people are called climate change refugees. Climate change refugees are all over the world due to their homes becoming uninhabitable. The definition of a climate change refugee still is sort of unclear, which could cause problems for people hoping to flee their countries in the hope to survive. But National Geographic describes these people as, people who must leave their homes and communities because of the effects of climate change and global warming. (https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/climate-refugee/). People have been fleeing their countries with the hope to survive since the beginning of history. Some of the latest figures predict that by the end of the century, there will be two billion climate change refugees, equal to roughly one-fifth of the projected global population. (ENIDAY.COM). In addition to relocating 2 billion people due to uninhabitable homes, the world will also see an increase in the total population. (ENIDAY). INSERT THESIS
Rising Sea Levels
The United States has already had first-hand experience with people fleeing their homes because of rising sea levels. Isle de Jean Charles, a small island south of Louisiana will be the first climate resettlement due to rising sea levels in the United States. Louisiana state officials made an announcement late in March regarding the new land for people from the island to move to. The island, once the size of 22,000 acres in 1955 is now at only 320 acres (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/time-almost-up-island-louisiana-sinking-into-the-sea-american-indians-coastal-erosion-isle-de-jean-a8280401.html) . This is the first community in the United States that will have relocate due to rising sea level, but it will not be the last. Nearly forty percent of the United States population lives near coastal areas, with the sea level rising, they will have to move elsewhere to survive. However, this is not just a problem in the United States. According to the NOAA, eight of the ten largest cities in the world are near a coast (https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html ).
This is also seen around the world, in 1995 Bhola Island of Bangladesh was nearly half underwater because of rising sea levels. This left 500,000 people without a home. One sea level prediction predicts Bangladesh to lose almost twenty percent of its land by 2050. This would create twenty million climate change refugees (https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/climate-refugee/).
Rising sea levels is caused by thermal expansion, as well as, melting of glaciers and ice along coastlines. Oceans absorb much more heat than the atmosphere due to global warming. The rising sea level rate has been increasing dramatically in the past couple decades. This trend has continued to the rate of roughly one-eighth of an inch per year (https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html). With all signs pointing towards the continued heating of the Earth, rising sea level will continue. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is expected sea levels to rise between eleven and thirty-eight inches by the end of the 21st Century (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/sea-level-rise/).
Rising sea levels are going to continue to cause problems for people who live in areas which their sea level is not high. Small island nations are getting hit by the effects of rising sea level right in the face. Many of these island are not responsible for global warming but are getting hit with the effects more than many other nations. The lowest sitting country in the world is Maldives which sits four feet above sea level, and their residents have been forced to leave as climate change refugees (https://ocean.si.edu/through-time/ancient-seas/sea-level-rise).
Where these people will go is not a question, they will either leave their native island or move from the coastline to move inland. One example of refugees moving away from their low lying country is Valentino Keimbar, who moved from Marshall Islands, a small pacific island between Hawaii and Australia, to Springdale Arkansas. Ten-thousand more Marshallese move along with Valentino after the threat of flooding due to rising sea levels stuck their community. In the article, one Marshallese women was quoted saying she, “Likes Arkansas because it is far away from the ocean, meaning it is safe” (https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2015/1129/In-Arkansas-a-growing-population-of-climate-change-refugees). The current residents who moved from Marshall to Arkansas expect everybody from the island to move there in ten to twenty years. This is just one of many countries to face the consequences of rising sea level. (Source).
Maldives, an island nation located in the Indian Ocean, sits just 8 feet above sea level. The future nation faces a huge threat because of rising sea level will hurt their economy as well as home. With the islands shrinking, less people will be visiting the island, and their tourism industry will suffer. Fishing could also be affected due to rising sea levels. This will force many Maldive natives to migrate from the country looking for new jobs. If worse comes to worse, and the entire nation is lost to sea level rising, the government officials in Maldives have talked with government officials from Australia, India,and Sri Lanka to make a plan incase their islands become uninhabitable (https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/climate-refugee/).
Drought
Although sea level rising is forcing people to move from the coasts and island that don’t sit high above sea level, climate change also affects area inland. Droughts are now more common and intense due to global warming and climate change. Droughts have different causes in different areas of the world but scientists believe more intense droughts are due humans affecting the climate through global warming. Air temperatures are increasing which causes more evaporation from bodies of water and in plant soil, this causes vegetation to die. With the dry soil, when rainfall comes the soil is unable to absorb the water which then can lead to floods. (https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/facts-about-climate-change-and-drought).
Droughts can have a huge impact on humans. Nearly forty-percent of human’s main source of income is through agriculture (https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/facts-about-climate-change-and-drought0. With a drought, many people are left with no income or food. According to this article, 2,245 counties in the United States experienced a severe drought in 2012. (SOURCE).
These droughts have caused people to migrate to other areas in order to survive because they are unable to survive without food. One example is when Syria experienced a severe drought in 2006-2007, 1.5 million people moved from the rural areas of the country to the urban areas (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4371967/). In China, the Gobi desert grows by 1,390 square miles every year. (https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/climate-refugee/. This forces people who once lived in the areas that became the Gobi desert to move into China’s urban areas with the hopes to survive. Desertification also strikes countries such as; Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya who lose nearly 400 square miles of farming land every year. These people are also forced to relocate to land in which they can survive. Other people who live around the Horn of Africa have experienced drought conditions which forced them to go to refugee camps in Kenya. This is now home for upwards of 180,000 people who once were able to provide for themselves. (Source ^).
The number of climate change refugees is hard to predict because it is uncertain to when droughts will strike and hard to predict how many people are fleeing their homes due to starvation. In 2017, the UNHCR warned four countries in Africa that they were nearing an humanitarian crisis. In these areas of Africa, 20 million people are living in areas of where harvests have failed. They also went on the mention twenty percent of South Sudan's population has fled their homes due to drought. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/africa-yemen-mass-starvation-drought-united-nations-refugee-agency-un-warns-nigeria-somalia-south-a7679016.html)
Conclusion on droughts
Wildfires
Recently, California was struck with wildfires. Most noticeably Camp Fire, the worst wildfire in California history. This fire left the city of Paradise almost completely destroyed, almost 19,000 buildings destroyed, nearly 10,000 of those buildings being houses. In addition, there were 85 total fatalities. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Fire_(2018). People had to evacuate their homes and obviously with homes being destroyed, people were forced to move elsewhere. This wasn’t the only wildfire to strike California recently, the Woolsey Fire burned through parts of Los Angeles and parts of Ventura Country. This fire burned almost 100,000 acres and destroyed over 1,600 buildings. In addition, it forced 295,000 people to evacuate the area (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolsey_Fire).
The frequency and duration of wildfires in the Western region of the United States has increased in the past couple decades. Climate change is a major reason why the frequency of wildfires is increasing. https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/impacts/global-warming-and-wildfire.html#.XA34nC-ZPVo The ground is now drier and the conditions are perfect for fires to start.
It is not just the fires that are dangerous to people, the smoke that comes from the fires is dangerous as well because of the particles humans are breathing in. Air pollution from these fires can cause people to flee from their homes to breath clean air. (https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/640462703/researchers-study-prolonged-effects-of-wildfire-smoke-exposure) One resident of California said he get dizzy and fell down because of how difficult it was to breath from the smoke in the air. There is concern breathing this air can be bad for health because the smoke is from all sorts of materials, not just forests. Researchers are now concerned the chemicals and toxins in the air due to wildfires could have “long-term health consequences that we don’t even understand (SOURCE).
People are fleeing their homes when wildfires are near them, many California residents took weekend trips to get away from the smoke and flames. The city of San Francisco was pretty much shut down after the camp fire near by caused the air quality to be at dangerous level. (https://observer.com/2018/11/california-wilfires-climate-refugees-homeless-crisis/). People who had their houses destroyed in the fire are now sleeping in tents in a Walmart parking lot or in their cars. There are also evacuation centers to accommodate those who lost their homes due to the fire, but those are now disease ridden. (https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-camp-fire-evacuee-desperation-20181115-story.html) These people are now considered climate change refugees. They are unsure of where they will live in the future. There is doubt if their houses will be rebuilt because a year after 5,300 homes were destroyed in the a fire last year, only 50 of the houses were rebuilt. In addition, a study shows only about half of the houses destroyed in wildfires were rebuilt within 6 years of destruction. (SOURCE OBSERVER).
With the increase and intensity of wildfires, it is likely more homes will be destroyed in the future. People will have to find new places to live after their homes are destroyed and they will become climate change refugees. This however man cause a problem especially in California where the housing crisis has already struck the state. It may not be as easy to just move elsewhere within the state (OBSERVER). There is a strong possibility people will have to begin moving elsewhere so they will have the ability to live.
Hurricanes
Hurricanes are now stronger and more intense due to global warming and climate change. Hurricanes gain their energy from warm ocean water, and because of human interference and global warming, oceans are getting warmer. In addition, the air is getting warmer which means the the air is holding more moisture. This causes there to be more rain during hurricanes, and more flooding. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/climate/humans-hurricanes-causes-effects.html) Hurricanes are now more dangerous than they previously were because the rise in sea level. This makes storm surges higher than they previously were which leads to an increase in flooding. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/climate/humans-hurricanes-causes-effects.html)
These more intense hurricanes are obviously destroying people’s homes and leaving their community uninhabitable forcing them to become climate change refugees. Some of these people are temporary refugees for instance, after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans in 2005, over half the population left the city. However, ten years later that number was back up to eighty percent of what it was before the hurricane. (https://www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/katrina/facts-for-impact/). Still, that means twenty percent of the population never came back after fleeing their city for safety. Recently, Hurricane Irma and Maria ravaged part of the Caribbean leaving most of it uninhabitable. Prior to Hurricane Irma, there were 97,000 people living in Antigua and Barbuda. After Hurricane Irma, there was nobody living in Barbuda. The island was left uninhabitable after the hurricane’s path crossed the island. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2017/09/21/are-hurricanes-creating-climate-refugees-in-the-caribbean/#23b81c345e97). The island of Dominica, 73,000 residents, was left nearly uninhabitable by Hurricane Maria. Follow the storm, almost all the residents were left without electricity, and their homes were very damaged (https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/20/world/hurricane-maria-dominica/index.html).
Teralytics, a technology company, tracked phones from Puerto Ricans after Hurricane Maria devastated the country. Through this tracking, they found about 400,000 Puerto Ricans flee from the island after Hurricane Maria. Nearly 150,000 of them went to nearby Florida, and others went to the places like the Bronx. Through these estimates, it is guess nearly six percent of the Puerto Rico population stayed in the United States (First CITYLAB). Furthermore, it is estimated that 135,000 Puerto Ricans left the island after Hurricane Maria and moved to the United States, and it is estimated 500,000 could move to the United States by 2019. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/03/exodus-the-post-hurricane-puerto-rican-diaspora-mapped/555401/. The recent increased intensity of hurricanes, has forced people to move from their homes to safer places. People are going to soon have to decide if want to keep throwing money to rebuild communities or move elsewhere to safer areas where hurricanes are no longer a threat.
Conclusion
In conclusion, global warming and climate change have caused many people to become climate change refugees. People are beginning to have to move to survive because what they used to call home is now uninhabitable. Rising sea level will force people to move from islands and coastlines because of the warming of the oceans. If the Earth continues to warm, the sea level could dramatically increase causing hundreds of millions of people to relocate to avoid flooding. Global warming will also cause more intense droughts in inland areas. This will cause millions of people to leave their land in the search for food and water because land will no longer be fertile enough to farm. With dry land, forest fires will become an issue and force people to move to avoid the fires as well as avoid the harmful smoke. Finally, the increased intensity of hurricanes will force people to become refugees and find safe places to live.
Migration to survive is not a new concept, humans have done so since the beginning of time. However, currently humans are having to do so at an increased rate because of global warming. With Donald Trump failing to acknowledge global warming and its effect, there are no signs of it slowing down. The effects of global warming will continue with the possibility of them becoming more intense. According to Maria Cristina Garcia, migration will become “fast and furious”. She is worried about the climate change refugees, they are currently not legally refugees under United States law