On Hurricanes and Hypocrisy
We must embrace our moral obligations to our neighbors, both locally and globally.
Floods have killed over 1,200 Nepal and Bangladesh in a disastrous South Asian monsoon. Meanwhile, Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm ever recorded over the Atlantic Ocean, has destroyed 90% of structures on Barbuda making the nation ‘practically uninhabitable’. Millions of people have been displaced by the effects of climate change, and it’s only time before millions more will need to look towards finding a new home.
This, combined with the news of Myanmar’s religious genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, and the ever increasing death tolls in Syria and Afghanistan… there has never been a more appropriate time to demand that we in the West start welcoming people into our country. I believe it is, in fact, our moral duty to offer a home to those who seek asylum.
By which universal code to we claim the right to be exclusively safe and protected from the effects of climate change?
Prime Minister of Barbuda demands recognition from countries who are complicit in contributing to carbon emissions.
“The irony about it is that islands in the Caribbean are very small … Many of us are not emitters of carbon and we are suffering from all of these profligate emissions from large industrial countries. And at the same time you have some leaders in the industrial world who are trying to say that climate change is not real.
We do not accept that, we see that as a form of irresponsibility. These heavy polluters ought to take responsibility for climate change. They are the ones who have the large carbon footprint and in essence are contributing to global warming at the expense of other countries that clearly are not polluting the planet.”
— Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Barbuda
It turns my stomach when, on the same day as reading Browne’s appeal to our humanity, I also hear Trump’s thoughtless account of climate change as he celebrates his abstinence from the Paris Climate Accord.
Our president denies the existence of man made climate change, and refuses to take responsibility. But we must recognize that we have a moral obligation to give aid to those who need it.
We, who collectively are responsible for 14.34% of global carbon emissions.
We, who have lost 70 of our own citizens in Hurricane Harvey.
We, who are right now preparing for the Hurricane Irma’s impact on Florida and the East Coast.
We know what it means to be scared to lose our home. We need to extend empathy and aid to those who have suffered even greater loss. Anything less than this is hypocrisy.
So what can we do? How do we start the process of opening our doors when, at the same time, Trump and the White House are making moves to destroy already established migration policy?
Just this week Attorney general Jeff Sessions announced that the US would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy in March 2018. This policy has provided 800,000 people a pathway to legal residence in the United States. DACA beneficiaries, all having moved to the United States as children, have grown up and built lives here. Should Trump’s plan be approved by congress, they will be forced to leave the only home they know.
The DACA repeal, Trump’s apparent vendetta against all Muslim immigrants, combined with his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border, all make the prospect of creating a climate refugee policy seem futile. But we can’t be deterred. Now is the time to start pushing back.
We start by standing up for people who have already made America their home. We fight against discriminatory policies actions against those who are vulnerable.
We must embrace our moral obligations to our neighbors, both locally and globally. Then, we can begin to challenge the greed, ignorance, and indifference which marginalizes the vulnerable today, and threatens the future of us all.
Let’s make the United States a safe place for immigrants. Start by letting your Senator, your Member of Congress, and the White House know that you want to keep DACA and the Dreamer Act Safe.
Call your senator to keep DACA and the Dreamer Act Safe.
