Abstract
Abstract
Climate change is a powerful form of structural violence perpetrated against the world's poorest communities. The international community has failed to mitigate fully or prevent human-induced climate change, and millions of people around the world already have begun experiencing some of the consequences of that failure to act. Moreover, the international community is failing to adequately plan for the worst-case scenarios in which those who are least able to adapt to a new climate paradigm increasingly find themselves displaced and compelled to relocate, domestically or internationally, because of environmental changes. Climate-induced environmental displacement is a multifaceted problem requiring a holistic social justice response—one that can transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries and affect change across multiple sectors.
Climate change is a powerful form of structural violence perpetrated against the world's poorest communities. This is a fundamental injustice manifested partly but acutely through environmental displacement, and it necessitates a holistic social justice response. This article begins by describing the international community's historical failure to act on climate change, and namely, its inability to fully mitigate or prevent climate change. It then turns to a significant consequence of that failure to act, which is climate-induced environmental displacement, while also noting some of the social justice concerns that arise. The article concludes with a five-part holistic social justice response to environmental displacement.
Failure to Act
The international community has been impressively unable to agree on an adequate response to climate change despite years of international negotiations. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which acts as a kind of constitution or founding charter for all international climate negotiations, was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1994 with annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) convened every year since then to stabilize the emissions that cause climate change. 1 Article 2 of the framework, agreed to by 195 signatories, states that the “ultimate objective of this Convention [is to achieve] stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” 2 The framework continues, noting that the goal of that stabilization is “to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.” 3 The Cancun Pledge of 2010 and the subsequent Paris Agreement in 2015 were hailed as landmark moments in the effort to realize this ambitious goal. 4
When the United States government withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2017, it represented a setback to decades of preparation for climate action that had only just begun to advance. The Paris Agreement was not intended to be an all-encompassing solution to climate change and, given the nature of its basic structure, its effectiveness at minimizing emissions can be reasonably debated. It was far from the perfect solution to climate change, but it was certainly a step forward in a complex process of international negotiations in the best system the world has ever created—although a flawed bureaucratic one—to solve a problem as severe and potentially catastrophic as climate change. Unfortunately, the world's nations are not collectively making any significant headway in reducing total planetary emissions in any way that could meaningfully halt whole-scale climate change. 5 We have failed at the task of complete mitigation.
The world can no longer entirely prevent the phenomenon of climate change because it is already heartily underway and it is proving to be a more urgent problem with every passing year of collective inaction. 6 Human-induced climate change is the result of two major factors working in concert. On the one hand, the world has long endured unprecedented levels of various forms of environmental degradation, such as deforestation, which reduces the earth's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. On the other, the production and consumption of energy from fossil fuels—the consumption of which sustains most of the world's industrialized economies—have spewed vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The problem of excessive fossil fuel consumption in tandem with the annihilation of ecological systems able to act as carbon sinks is disrupting the climate's otherwise relatively stable systems. 7 The consequence of this failure to act on climate change is increasingly a threat to the way of life for millions of people around the world.
There are several ways climate change threatens the lives of people, especially when it displaces them from their homes or communities. 8 Extreme weather events such as flooding, hurricanes, or heat waves have been tormenting human populations since time immemorial. But, although such events have long been a natural part of earth's climate systems, they are newly significant because such phenomena are generally increasing in both intensity and frequency as a result of the excess carbon emissions causing climate change. When a 500-year flood or storm happens several times in a lifetime, that changes the habitability of a location. 9 When historical weather patterns shift, they create droughts and agricultural failures in some places like much of the African continent and flooding with the spread of waterborne illnesses and outbreaks such as cholera in places such as Southeast Asia. 10 Sea level rise is another consequence of climate change, and it is particularly disruptive for those large population centers along low-lying river deltas as well as for small island nations. 11 The Maldivian government, for example, has been relocating its citizens from uninhabitable islands since 2010. 12 The Carteret Islanders may be another example. 13 The Kiribati Islands are yet another example. 14 Communities such as these face an onslaught of challenges from shoreline erosion, freshwater source contamination by seawater infiltration, and storm surges, which make these places uninhabitable long before sea levels rise high enough to drown a people's homeland beneath the rising tides. 15 As bad as these disruptions are now, they are likely to get worse.
The long-term consequences of environmental displacement are likely to be quite severe, and the international community is ill prepared for it. Estimates vary, but some argue that as many as 150 million people may be displaced by environmental changes for the next 50 years. 16 Not everyone is able to flee from the natural disasters increasingly affecting certain communities. 17 Those who can, and who must leave their homelands to do so, are not eligible under existing international law to receive legal refugee status recognition as are those displaced for other reasons. 18 This is the case even though the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees has formally expressed a perceived need for the continued study of climate change and human rights. 19 Although the agency does often participate in natural disaster emergencies out of sheer necessity because of pressing humanitarian needs, it is simply not within the UN Refugee Agency's mandate to respond to the extreme weather events likely to increase in frequency and intensity because of climate change. In those dire circumstances where so few resources exist in the face of so much devastation, the only thing many people feel they can do to survive is to quite literally run for their very lives, regardless of whether there is an international border standing in the way. 20
The Injustice of Climate-Induced Environmental Displacement
Climate-induced environmental displacement disproportionately affects the world's most economically impoverished and vulnerable populations. 21 When it comes to natural disasters generally, vulnerable populations in all societies typically suffer far more than most others. This is the case with flooding. 22 This is the case with hurricanes. 23 This is the case with heat waves. 24 Climate change also shifts disease transmission ranges, as in the case of malaria, and this not only pushes the kind of displacement that is hardest on the most marginalized but also compounds existing social inequities and disparities in human health among the global poor. 25 It also distresses fundamental food security in the world's poorest economies, particularly in places across much of the African continent. 26 Under-resourced populations are the least able to employ technological solutions to challenges posed by climate change, which might otherwise allow them to adapt in place, and they are the least able to migrate safely when adaptation is impossible. Climate change is a global phenomenon that could disrupt all of earth's planetary systems to varying degrees, but those who suffer first and most disproportionately are the poorest of the global poor.
Wealthier industrialized populations have generally benefitted for generations from the extraction of natural resources and the production of goods and services. They have done so partly by using the global commons as a sink for the excess carbon emissions that cause climate change, contributing to the various forms of environmental displacement described. The gains from the historical and continued use of this free sink, however, are not held in common. Moreover, the heaviest burdens of climate change are felt most acutely by the poorest of the global poor whose general sensitivity and exposure risks are the highest. 27 We have not all shared equitably in financial gain from the activities that led to climate change, nor do we all equally confront its consequences or have equal abilities to adapt to it. 28
Some communities are better positioned than others to adapt to climate change or to flee from it. This is not because of blind luck; there is an element of culpability involved. Basic fairness and justice necessitate the kind of shared but differentiated responsibility the UNFCCC is charged to pursue. To realize it, though, the world needs clearer visions of social justice that inspire concrete holistic responses to global problems such as climate-induced environmental displacement. Any meaningful way forward needs to be both practical and expansive enough to task every person in all communities with something they can do in response to the collective call to halt climate change and the unjust forms of environmental displacement that ensues. Climate change is neither a problem created by all nor a burden whose yoke is equally born by all, but it is a challenge we must all confront together.
A Holistic Social Justice Response
The violent structural dimension of climate-induced environmental displacement is partly what makes it such a pernicious problem. Climate-induced environmental displacement easily crosses the defining boundaries of institutional violence and structural oppression, because it interrupts “reasonable access to the fulfillment of legitimate human needs for individuals and groups” and it is sustained through “political ideologies, economic institutions, [and] cultural attitudes and behaviors.” 29 A serious response to such institutional violence and systemic oppression requires a wide-ranging transformation of the policies, systems, and procedures that perpetuate the problem so that transformational change can extend beyond the level of relationships between individual people (even though changes are necessary there too), and so changes can be broadly based, deep, and lasting. Social justice focuses on “the common good of a whole society including individual members, collective groups and the structures,” which order the whole of society and social justice carries a special concern for the most disenfranchised, including “those unable to demand justice for themselves.” 30 Confronting climate-induced environmental displacement through a lens of social justice is an essential part of adequately addressing the uniquely interwoven social, cultural, and environmental aspects of the problem.
For a social justice approach to the problem of climate-induced environmental displacement, I offer a five-part holistic response. To the extent that we are capable as individuals, as families, as members of community organizations or faith-based congregations, and as voting constituents of local, state, and national governments, each of us can and should use those positions to advocate across various spheres of influence for the following actionable steps:
Prevent what is still preventable
Social justice and sustainable development are more attainable when the social fabric of a community is preserved. It is critical we mitigate the worst effects of climate change, so migration is only necessary as a last resort. Nobody should be forced to flee his or her homeland. Although complete mitigation of climate change and environmental displacement is no longer possible, it is possible and necessary to prevent the still-preventable consequences of climate change. The world needs a rapid mobilization of national and global resources to curtail the continued production and consumption of fossil fuels while simultaneously conserving and preserving what remains of the world's temperate and tropical forests. 31 Our very best hope may be only a partial mitigation of the worst effects of climate change, but considering the devastation possible under business-as-usual scenarios, this step ought not to go unnamed.
Invest in place-based resilience
The poorest communities in the world's poorest nations face unfair social, political, and economic structures that make successful adaptation to climate change exceedingly unlikely. These communities lack the financial resources and infrastructure to fully support adequate climate resilience under current social and environmental conditions. If conditions worsen as expected under business-as-usual climate change scenarios, much more will be required to achieve climate resilience. Although technical solutions to many environmental challenges are available, enduring social injustices stand between those solutions and the communities needing them. Preparing for the future means building more resilient communities now. 32 Sustainable economic development programs emphasizing education, women's development and equity, agricultural productivity and stability in rural areas, and infrastructure projects in dense urban areas would go a long way in building more resilient communities.
Build equity into all aspects of society
Solutions to environmental problems are more effective if the scientific and technological aspects are addressed alongside social and political aspects. 33 Those aspects include fair economic development, equitable governance, and gender equality so everyone has an opportunity to be part of the solution. Various segments of society must learn to work together collaboratively on problems that are emerging without any concern for traditional disciplinary boundaries. 34 This is why specialists argue for formulations of broad-gauged responses to environmental problems. 35 Although there has been some progress on this front, it has not yet been on a scale required and more effort is necessary.
Create forward-looking migration policies
Individuals, families, and sometimes entire communities face a false choice between a near-certain loss of life and livelihood in their homeland or the risk and uncertainties of an uprooted and stateless life elsewhere. The options available to climate change displacees are not yet on par with those available to refugees of national, political, racial, religious, or social group persecutions. 36 When climate-induced environmental displacement cannot be prevented and migration is necessary, there are important social justice questions that need to be addressed: what is the international community's obligation in providing vulnerable communities a legal option to flee for their lives from environmental disasters, as we do already for social and political disasters where persecution leads to loss of life and livelihood? How do the world's nations ensure that through international cooperation, global social systems, and governance structures they do the job only they are equipped to do: tackle problems of global significance with shared but differentiated responsibility? Working together, with the best information from the hard and social sciences at our disposal and out of a concern for equity and shared prosperity, is a critical part of creating forward-looking policies better equipped to meet the needs of the world's most vulnerable populations.
Assess personal actions and communal responsibilities
A holistic social justice-based response to climate-induced environmental displacement obliges a discussion of the fundamental narratives undergirding personal responsibility in relation to the social institutions and governing structures we create together. The way one sees the world has a direct influence on the way one interacts with it, how someone perceives problems, and whether they choose (or choose not) to work with others toward solutions to those problems. Individual action is an important way to embody the values that make robust social systems possible. Accordingly, we ought not to exclude ourselves from a critical review of the way we live our lives and whether we might do so in a way that better attests to shared responsibilities. This is a baseline approach to responsible individual conduct, but a social justice approach extends beyond it. A social justice approach focuses concern less on the choices an individual makes and more on the way one works in relation with others and to the institutions best able to effect collective change. We must constantly renew our institutions and transform them, so they more purposefully contribute to the common good and make normative a concern for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable members of society. The power and potential of a social justice response are to transform the way individuals live in relation to the social structures that govern our lives together.
The world can no longer completely prevent a phenomenon that is already underway. The climate is changing and communities around the globe are experiencing the consequences. What we can do is actively work to prevent the worst effects of climate change, invest in place-based resilience, build equity into all aspects of society, create forward-looking migration policies, and assess our own personal actions in relation to our communal responsibilities. There is great potential for human civilizations to boldly transform the way we live on this planet and the way we live together. Social justice and environmental justice are possible if we act.
Footnotes
Author Disclosure Statement
No competing financial interests exist.
1
Daniel Bodansky and Lavanya Rajamani. “The Evolution and Governance Architecture of the Climate Change Regime.” In Detlef Sprinz and Urs Luterbacher (eds). International Relations and Global Climate Change, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013).
2
United Nations General Assembly. “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.” <
3
Ibid. See also: Daniel Bodansky. “The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: A Commentary.” Yale Journal of International Law 18 (1993): 451–558.
4
I closely followed these negotiations as an observer delegate at the 16th, 17th, and 18th COPs (Cancun, Mexico; Durban, South Africa; and Doha, Qatar).
5
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the most widely recognized authority on climate change and serves as the standard bearer on global scientific consensus regarding climate change. For a summary overview of the most recent report, the AR5, see: Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds). Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC, 2014). IPCC reports are often considered to be relatively conservative in their predictions. See: David Spratt and Ian Dunlop. “What Lies Beneath: The Understatement of Existential Climate Risk.” (Melbourne: Breakthrough—National Centre for Climate Restoration, 2018). <
6
Will Steffen, et al. “Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (2018): 8252–8259; Katey Walter Anthony, et al. “21st-Century Modeled Permafrost Carbon Emissions Accelerated by Abrupt Thaw Beneath Lakes.” Nature Communications 9 (2018), 3262.
7
Lester R. Brown. Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009).
8
Koko Warner, et al. In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement. (Bonn, Germany: CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg, May 2009).
9
A 500-year flood event is one with a 1 in 500 chance of occurring in any given year in a local area. The Houston, Texas area, for example, has seen a 500-year flood for three consecutive years in a row from 2015 to 2017, as documented by local officials and reported by Christopher Ingraham. “Houston Is Experiencing Its Third ‘500-Year’ Flood in 3 Years. How Is That Possible?” The Washington Post, 29 August 2017. Heavy precipitation events are increasing in intensity and frequency across much of the United States and is expected to continue to increase, according to a report by the U.S. Global Change Research Program: D.J. Wuebbles, et al. Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I. (Washington, DC: U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2017). DOI: 10.7930/J0J964J6.
10
L. Kristen Page. “Global Climate Change: Implications for Global Health.” In Lindy Scott (ed). Christians, the Care of Creation & Global Climate Change. (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2008).
11
Brian M. Fagan. The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels. (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013); Saleemul Huq, et al. “Sea-Level Rise and Bangladesh: A Preliminary Analysis.” Journal of Coastal Research Spring No. 14 (1995): 44–53.
12
Julia Pyper. “Drama Unfolds on Islands Facing a Watery End.” Environment & Energy Publishing, 18 March 2013.
13
Small atoll nations likely experience a combination of complex environmental and geological interactions in addition to sea-level rise, such as island subsidence and human-induced ecological disruptions that lead to coral reef depletion and shoreline erosion. See: Simon Donner. “Sea Level Rise and the Ongoing Battle of Tarawa.” EOS 93 (Apr 2012): 169–170. See also: Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger. Sun Come Up, DVD, directed by Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger. (New York, NY: Sun Come Up, LLC, 2011). See also: Margit Ammer. “Climate Change and Human Rights: The Status of Climate Refugees in Europe.” In Mary Robinson and Paulo Pinheiro (eds). Protecting Dignity: An Agenda for Human Rights. (Geneva: Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, 2009), 13.
14
The president of the Kiribati Islands famously tried to buy land for relocation in neighboring Fiji as a response to what he saw as relentlessly rising sea levels. See: Paul Chapman. “Entire Nation of Kiribati to Be Relocated over Rising Sea Level Threat: The Low-Lying Pacific Nation of Kiribati Is Negotiating to Buy Land in Fiji So It Can Relocate Islanders Under Threat from Rising Sea Levels.” The Telegraph, 17 March 2012. Also, see: James Heer. The President's Dilemma, Film, directed by James Heer. (Oley, PA: Television Trust for the Environment; BBC World Service; Bullfrog Films, 2011).
15
Michael B. Gerrard and Gregory E. Wannier, eds. Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
16
This is ∼1.5% of the predicted global population in 2050. The UN projects population growth will remain largely unchanged in developed regions with large increases in the least developed regions, leading to a total projected world population of 9.6 billion people sharing this planet by 2050. See: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables. (New York: United Nations, 2013). Also, see: Cam Walker. “A Gathering Storm: Climate Change and Environmental Refugees.” Arena Magazine, 1 December 2003; Oli Brown. Migration and Climate Change. (Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Migration, 2008); Rafael Reuveny. “Climate Change-Induced Migration and Violent Conflict.” Political Geography 26 (2007): 656–673; François Gemenne. “Climate-Induced Population Displacements in a 4°C+ World.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences 369 (2011): 182–195.
17
UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Briefing Note: The Management of Humanitarian Emergencies Caused by Extreme Climate Events. (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Apr 2009), 1.
18
UNHCR. Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status Under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. (Geneva: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1992, 1979), 7.
19
Antonio Guterres. “Millions Uprooted: Saving Refugees and the Displaced.” Foreign Affairs 87 (2008): 90–99; UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Climate Change, Natural Disasters and Human Displacement: A UNHCR Perspective. (The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2009), 1–12.
20
Fabrice Renaud, et al. Control, Adapt Or Flee: How to Face Environmental Migration? (Bonn, Germany: United Nations University—Institute for Environment and Human Security, 2007).
21
James S. Mastaler. “A Case Study on Climate Change and Its Effects on the Global Poor.” Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology 15 (2011): 65–87.
22
Roy Brouwer, et al. “Socioeconomic Vulnerability and Adaptation to Environmental Risk: A Case Study of Climate Change and Flooding in Bangladesh.” Risk Analysis 27 (2007): 313–326; M. Monirul Qader Mirza. “Global Warming and Changes in the Probability of Occurrence of Floods in Bangladesh and Implications.” Global Environmental Change 12 (2002): 127–138.
23
Alan Breube, et al. Katrina's Window Confronting Concentrated Poverty Across America. (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, Metropolitan Policy Program, 2005); James R. Elliott and Jeremy Pais. “Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina: Social Differences in Human Responses to Disaster.” Social Science Research 35 (2006): 295–321; John R. Logan. The Impact of Katrina: Race and Class in Storm-Damaged Neighborhoods. (Brown University, 2006); Sherrie A. Tomlinson. “No New Orleanians Left Behind: An Examination of the Disparate Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Minorities.” Connecticut Law Review 38 (2006): 1153–1188.
24
Eric Klinenberg. Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002); S. Whitman, et al. “Mortality in Chicago Attributed to the July 1995 Heat Wave.” American Journal of Public Health 87 (1997): 1515–1518; S. Vandentorren, et al. “August 2003 Heat Wave in France: Risk Factors for Death of Elderly People Living at Home.” European Journal of Public Health 16 (2006): 583–591; P. Pirard, et al. “Summary of the Mortality Impact Assessment of the 2003 Heat Wave in France.” Euro Surveillance: Bulletin Européen Sur Les Maladies Transmissibles—European Communicable Disease Bulletin 10 (2005): 153–156.
25
Paul Farmer. Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001); Timothy Evans, et al. ed. Challenging Inequities in Health from Ethics to Action. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Leeanne Stratton, et al. “The Persistent Problem of Malaria: Addressing the Fundamental Causes of a Global Killer.” Social Science & Medicine 67 (2008): 854–862.
26
Food security under drought conditions is more adequately managed by affluent societies. Better access to resources, stable economies and political structures, improved infrastructure for delivery of product, crop insurance, aid programs, and the ability to purchase food from abroad while subsidizing expenses, all contribute to an affluent nation's ability to maintain an adequate affordable food supply when domestic food production is disrupted. Moreover, a geographically expansive country such as the U.S. can grow temperate grain crops across vast swaths of its heartland, all kinds of fruits and vegetables in moderate coastal places such as California, and tropical food crops in places such as Florida. It is a continent-size nation with a diversity of ecosystems that offer it advantages in adapting to climate change. See: Bruce Frayne, et al. Climate Change, Assets and Food Security in Southern African Cities. (New York: Earthscan, 2012); Alfonso Peter Castro, et al. Climate Change and Threatened Communities: Vulnerability, Capacity, and Action. (Rugby, Warwickshire: Practical Action Publishing, 2012); M.A. Mohamed Salih, ed. Inducing Food Insecurity: Perspectives on Food Policies in Eastern and Southern Africa. (Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1994); Alexander Sarris and Jamie Morrison. Food Security in Africa: Market and Trade Policy for Staple Foods in Eastern and Southern Africa. (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishers, 2010).
27
Climate vulnerability and resiliency are generally framed in terms of two well-established factors: a population's general sensitivity to climate change and its exposure risks to it. The Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) and the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN) are helpful tools in determining sensitivity and exposure risk across the globe. They both use various data points to factor in social, political, and economic statistics, which help illuminate whether a certain population is more or less vulnerable to the challenges attributed to climate change. There are differences in how each index calculates and weighs those factors it determines are most important in determining vulnerability and resiliency. But, taken together, they indicate that Africa and South/Southeast Asia are clearly some of the most climate-vulnerable and least climate-resilient regions. See: Maplecroft. Climate Change and Environmental Risk Atlas, 5th ed. (Bath, United Kingdom: Maplecroft, 2013) and ND-GAIN Index at
28
The Netherlands has a long history of building sea walls to keep back sea water, and they continue to invest vast sums of money into them to protect vital population centers. See: Brian M. Fagan. The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels. (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013), 112. New York City has considered a bold engineering plan to protect Manhattan from the kind of storm surges like those associated with Superstorm Sandy and that are expected to increase in frequency and intensity as climate change continues unabated. See: Mireya Navarro. “Weighing Sea Barriers as Protection for New York.” The New York Times, 7 November 2012. Whether it is the wisest use of resources for the Dutch or the United States to fund large-scale programs such as these, they are nonetheless an example of the kind of place-based adaptations wealthier places can consider that are not even on the table for severely under-resourced nations struggling to provide today's necessities, such as basic infrastructure, sanitation, and clean water.
29
Mary Elsbernd. A Theology of Peacemaking: A Vision, A Road, A Task. (Lanham: University Press of America, 1989), 204–211.
30
Ibid. See also: Mary Elsbernd and Reimund Bieringer. When Love is Not Enough: A Theo-Ethic of Justice. (Collegeville: Liturgical, 2002), 96, 107; William L. Droel. What is Social Justice? (Chicago, IL: ACTA Publications, 2011), 6.
31
Lester R. Brown. Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009), 23, 111, 241–268.
32
Koko Warner, et al. In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement. (Bonn, Germany: CARE Deutschland-Luxemburg, May 2009); The Norwegian Refugee Council. Climate Changed: People Displaced. (Norway: Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2009).
33
UNDP. “Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World.” In Human Development Report 2007/2008 (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
34
A number of scientists have long requested religious leaders engage these issues head-on and help mobilize their communities. See: Edward O. Wilson. The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006); Lester R. Brown. Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009); Carl Sagan, et al. “An Open Letter to the Religious Community.” In John E. Carroll and Keith Warner (eds). Ecology and Religion: Scientists Speak. (Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press, 1998). For a document signed by over 1500 eminent scientists and Nobel laureates, see: Union of Concerned Scientists. “World Scientists' Warning to Humanity (1992).” <
35
Lester R. Brown. Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2009).
36
UN General Assembly. Convention Related to the Status of Refugees. (United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons, Adopted 28 July 1951); UN General Assembly. Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. (United Nations Treaty Series, 31 January 1967, entry into force 4 October 1967).