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Climate refugees – the hidden cost of climate change

Climate refugees – the hidden cost of climate change
BY GREEN LEFT ONLINE

Solomon Times Online January 13, 2009 By Margarita Windisch (Green Left Weekly) 3 December 2008 – The culturally diverse 7 million Pacific Islanders live in 22 nations. They only contribute 0.06 percent to global greenhouse gas emissions but are three times more vulnerable to climate change than countries of the global North, according to the IPCC.

“If these people can spend millions and millions on sending troops to fight other countries, why can’t they spend maybe a couple of billions just to save people, like ourselves; the marginalised, poorest of the poor. Why? Because we are taking the brunt, we are the victims of these green[house] gas emissions, the pollution made by industrialised countries.”

These words were spoken by a Carteret Islander in an unfinished documentary, The First Wave, the evacuation of the Carteret Islands. For the inhabitants of Pacific and Indian Ocean island nations, such as the Carteret Islands, climate change is already a devastating reality.
……………………….The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fourth assessment report identifies small islands, including those in the South Pacific, as one of the key global regions to be most affected by climate change.

The IPCC report predicts an estimated 150 million environmental refugees worldwide by the middle of this century, citing coastal flooding, shoreline erosion and agricultural degradation as major factors.

The culturally diverse 7 million Pacific Islanders live in 22 nations. They only contribute 0.06% to global greenhouse gas emissions but are three times more vulnerable to climate change than countries of the global North, according to the IPCC.

Climate refugees – the hidden cost of climate change | Regional | Solomon Islands News

January 13, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment