Emigration from Central America is driven by climate change

How climate change is driving emigration from Central America, The Conversation, Miranda Cady Hallett
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Human Rights Center Research Fellow, University of Dayton September 6, 2019 “………. Rising global temperatures, the spread of crop disease and extreme weather events have made coffee harvests unreliable in places like El Salvador. On top of that, market prices are unpredictable.
In the back of the pickup truck that day, we talked about gangs too. There was increasing criminal activity in the town nearby, and some young people in the town were being harassed and recruited. But this was a relatively new issue for the community, layered on top of the persistent problem of the ecological crisis. ……. situation is reflective of a much broader global phenomenon of people leaving their homes, directly or indirectly due to climate change and the degradation of their local ecosystem. ….

Land and livelihood

Migration from Central America has gotten a lot of attention these days, including the famous migrant caravans. But much of it focuses on the way migrants from this region – especially El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras – are driven out by gang violence, corruption and political upheaval.

These factors are important and require a response from the international community. But displacement driven by climate change is significant too…….

Studies show that displacement often happens indirectly through the impact of climate change on agricultural livelihoods, with some areas pressured more than others. But some are more dramatic: Both Honduras and Nicaragua are among the top 10 countries most impacted by extreme weather events between 1998 and 2017.

Since 2014, a serious drought has decimated crops in Central America’s so-called dry corridor along the Pacific Coast. By impacting smallholder farmers in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, this drought helps to drive higher levels of migration from the region.

Coffee production, a critical support for these countries’ economies, is especially vulnerable and sensitive to weather variations. A recent outbreak of coffee leaf rust in the region was likely exacerbated by climate change.

The fallout from that plague combines with the recent collapse in global coffee prices to spur desperate farmers to give up.

Compounding factor

These trends have led experts at the World Bank to claim that around 2 million people are likely to be displaced from Central America by the year 2050 due to factors related to climate change. Of course, it’s hard to tease out the “push factor” of climate change from all of the other reasons that people need to leave. And unfortunately, these phenomena interact and tend to exacerbate each other……..

For several years now, scholars and legal advocates have been asking how to respond to people displaced by environmental conditions. Do existing models of humanitarian response and resettlement work for this new population? Could such persons be recognized as in need of protection under international law, similar to political refugees?

Among the most complicated political questions is who should step up to deal with the harms of climate change, considering that wealthier countries pollute more but are often shielded from the worst effects. How can responsibility be assigned, and more importantly, what is to be done?

In the absence of coordinated action on the part of the global community to mitigate ecological instability and recognize the plight of displaced people, there’s a risk of what some have called “climate apartheid.” In this scenario – climate change combined with closed borders and few migration pathways – millions of people would be forced to choose between increasingly insecure livelihoods and the perils of unauthorized migration. https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-is-driving-emigration-from-central-america-121525?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20September%206%202019%20-%201403413223&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20September%206%202019%20-%201403413223+CID_a3ca619b732b0adcb04969116dc

September 7, 2019 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, SOUTH AMERICA

1 Comment »

well america is a radioactive chemical shithole with 20 million homeless people and 10 million climate refugees of its own. keep up the propaganda bullshit christina. americans are screwed.
most of us are downwinders. we dont need anymore immigrants legal or illegal. u also tweet shit from that cia bitch pia jensen . pia jensen wants america to bringdown the elected govts of nicaragua, bolivia, venezuela, and spain. pia jensen tweets shit rightwing nuclear idiots

pia jensen contributes innocuous tweets pretennding to be be antinuclear. it runs a webpage populated by counterintelligence agents. it says fukushima was started by aliens of nuclear bombs detonated in the pacific.the bitch pia jensen cannot even read.

my brother just died from nuclear. hard shitty like he had. fuk u christina. how many reactors have any of u assholes shutdown . haw many protests at waste sites or reactors or bomb site fuk all of u

Comment by teri | September 7, 2019 | Reply

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