Being a Global Neighbor: Climate Change and Displaced Persons
This is the fifth in a series of OpEds published by Hello Neighbor Network members. Andrea Cramer, Founder and Executive Director of Neighbor to Neighbor, provided us with the following OpEd for Earth Day.
It’s hard to forget the images from Hurricane Maria that hit Puerto Rico in 2017. The damage that it caused lasted much longer than its fierce winds. The crisis also came in the weeks after, through the lack of power and access to water, the flooding and landslides, the lack of access to hospitals and clinics, and the lack of generators and supplies at those hospitals and clinics. It is not difficult to imagine how a natural disaster — either a fiercely strong and quick disaster like a hurricane or a slow and relentless disaster like a draught — could massively affect a whole community. Neither is it difficult to imagine how, in some cases, people affected have no option but to leave their homes.
Many natural disasters leave people either searching for a new home within their own country — what is known as internal displacement — or migrating across borders in search of safety.
“According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre,” writes the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),“There were 18.8 million new disaster-related internal displacements recorded in 2017. Most disaster displacement linked to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change is internal, with those affected remaining within their national borders. However, displacement across borders also occurs, and may be interrelated with situations of conflict or violence.
People are trying to adapt to the changing environment, but many are being forcibly displaced from their homes by the effects of climate change and disasters, or are relocating in order to survive. New displacement patterns, and competition over depleted natural resources can spark conflict between communities or compound pre-existing vulnerabilities.”
While those of us in North America don’t often feel the hardest effects of climate change, that does not mean that our actions aren’t affecting the world.
On the contrary, the omissions produced in North America drastically impact our neighbors around the world — and, more often than not, those who are already on the margins. Not only that, but if the recent events from the severe temperature catastrophe in Texas have taught us anything, it’s that the United States is not immune to climate change. And while infrastructure issues certainly need to be addressed to mitigate the worst damage, the root cause of climate change also needs to be faced with sobriety and immediacy.
At Neighbor to Neighbor, we believe that we each have the power to play a positive role in stalling, and hopefully beginning to reverse, climate change. In addition to advocating for policies that minimize the human causes of climate change and confronting the 100 companies that are responsible for 71 percent of global emissions, here are just a few ideas that are easy to implement and can go a long way in reducing our landfill waste, which is a huge greenhouse gas contributor (90–98 percent of gas produced by landfills are methane and carbon dioxide):
- Recycle. Neighbor to Neighbor’s home, St. Joseph County, for example, accepts all glass, aluminum, plastic (numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7!), newspaper, and cardboard. You should be able to find what your community accepts by going to your local government website.
- Compost. You can make a compost bin for $10 by following these instructions. Composting allows food to break down much faster than if it is in the landfill. And cutting household food waste in half cuts more CO(2) emissions than solar farms and rooftop solar combined.
- Reuse. When you can, use reusable shopping bags, produce bags, water bottles, napkins, and straws.
Just as the global political climate is ever changing, so too the global environmental climate is changing — and both are major causes of the displacement and mass migration of people around the world. Taking action on climate issues shows love and kindness to our global neighbors.
Neighbor to Neighbor is a member of the Hello Neighbor Network a coalition of refugee- and immigrant-serving community organizations from across the U.S.
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