"In a world that is so divided by inequalities in wealth and opportunity, it is easy to forget that we are part of one human community. As we see the early impacts of climate change registering across the world, each of us has to reflect on what it means to be part of that family ... We can, and must, work together to ensure that [it] does not throw human development into reverse gear." Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu (1)
The era of climate change migration has begun. On remote Carterets, a tiny and flat Pacific atoll, the situation is dire. Surrounded by nothing but open ocean, its six inhabited islands are extremely vulnerable to the rising sea – the highest point of the Carterets is only 1.2 meters above sea level.
In 2005, a decision was reached to evacuate the Carteret Islands and resettle its tiny population (officially 2,502 people) on larger Bougainville Island, a four-hour boat ride southwest of the atoll. Over the course of seven-to-ten years, ten families at a time are being moved under the resettlement scheme, until the whole island population is fully evacuated.
Despite 20 years of initiatives to hold back the sea, these people have now become the world’s first recognised "climate change refugees".
The causes and symptoms of climate change are well documented and rapidly gaining international prominence in macro policy dialogue. A pattern of environmental degradation and negative climatic change has been set in motion and is severely eroding the security and livelihoods of millions of people.
Evidence points to a link between climate change and natural disasters – and the majority of the most dire effects of climate change fall upon the poor. Cyclic patterns of drought and flood, as well as the subtle, seemingly less dramatic effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, coastal erosion and contamination of freshwater resources, exacerbate poverty in densely populated coastal regions across the world and displace multitudes.
Islands are becoming uninhabitable, islanders are evacuating their atolls, coastal populations are moving inland, coastal erosion is eating away properties, agricultural land is being salinated, freshwater supplies are being contaminated, climate disasters are on the increase and "climate refugees" are fleeing environmental decay (2).
The climate crisis is depriving millions of the poorest people of justice and threatens to leave a legacy of destruction for today's children and their descendants. Unless it is curbed, climate change is set to reverse progress built up over generations. This could become the greatest wholesale violation of human rights in history.
The problem is particularly concerning since, unlike the victims of conflict and natural disaster who can benefit from the mobilisation of relief, millions of gradually uprooted environmental migrants receive no support and are not recognised as official "refugees" under world conventions (3).
Action is urgently needed to protect the rights of a growing number of climate migrants. World Vision urges unprecedented global action in the areas of mitigation (to address the causes of climate change) and adaptation (to sooth its effects) if decades of development gains are not to be lost.
Read more about climate change in summaries of World Vision's Planet Prepare Report
1 - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Human Development Report 2007/2008. Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world. Published 2007. New York. USA. ISBN 978-0-230-54704-9. {Pages 36-37.}
2 - IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, Pachauri, R.K and Reisinger, A. (eds.)]. Geneva. Switzerland. {Pages 13 and 53.}
3 - As Ranks of "Environmental Refugees" Swell Worldwide, Calls Grow for Better Definition, Recognition, Support. United Nations University UNU-EHS Institute for Environment and Human Security. UN Day for Disaster Reduction: Oct. 12, 2005. {Page 3.} (Accessed 10 Apr 2008 @ http://www.ehs.unu.edu/file.php?id=58)
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