No Place To Go – Climate Refugees
Wearing the EJF Climate T-Shirt with People Tree Peace Silk Dress at Launch of London Leaders 2011, City Hall
Last month the UK held it’s first ever Climate Week, which received a great deal of scrutiny due to it’s headline sponsor. A friend Jamie Burdett joked on twitter ‘This week it’s the RBS sponsored Climate Week. Next Monday sees the start of Vegetarian Week sponsored by KFC.’ But let’s leave the politics of power to one side and take a look a one of the devastating issues that climate change brings up. The plight of climate refugees, highlighted by EJF (Environmental Justice Foundation) They have a climate refugees campaign, as the way the world has changed there are actually more climate refugees now then there are political refugees. In 2008, 20 million people were displaced due to climate change, and over 150,000 died due to global warming.
The refugee issue has always been one close to my heart; comfort, security and family is something that we all need. Yet for many people just because of where they are born, they will never experience this. Imagine having to move to another country, where the weather may be totally different, where nobody speaks your language, and where because of your refugee status, people forget to treat you with the most basic of human rights. My brother, filmmaker Ashish Ghadiali, and I have been working on an idea for a creative project that works with refugees and asylum speakers in London, which we hope to put on early next year. The challenge is raising funds to do this, at a time when refugee services in the UK have been hit hard by the recent public spending cuts. I have spent some time in different refugee centres over the past six months around London, and am always shocked and inspired by how strong humans are, when they tell you their stories of how they came to be here. I am looking forward to refugee week here in London in June, which this week will be celebrating 60 years of the refugee convention.
As part of Climate Week, EJF made this special t-shirt with designer Eley Kishimoto, who was inspired by the tree of life. The t-shirt costs just £10 which is broken down as Cost of production/distribution: £4.41 Value Added Tax: £2 Donation to charity: £3.59 which is going to EJF’s work on climate refugees.
Climate Week Tee
Watch this video of Lily Cole, talking about her trip to India to find see how this t-shirt was produced:
Find out more about climate refugees:
+ Read Christian Aid’s Report – The Human Tide
+ Take Action For Climate Refugees
+ Find out more about Regufee Week in London and how you can get involved
-
[…] Kishimoto, which was inspired by the tree of life and the profits of it’s sale went to their Climate Refugees campaign. Did you know that there are actually more climate refugees than political refugees in […]
While the Earth has always endured natural climate change variability, we are now facing the possibility of irreversible climate change in the near future. The increase of greenhouse gases in the Earth?s atmosphere from industrial processes has enhanced the natural greenhouse effect. This in turn has accentuated the greenhouse ?trap? effect, causing greenhouse gases to form a blanket around the Earth, inhibiting the sun?s heat from leaving the outer atmosphere. This increase of greenhouse gases is causing an additional warming of the Earth?s surface and atmosphere. A direct consequence of this is sea-level rise expansion, which is primarily due to the thermal expansion of oceans (water expands when heated), inducing the melting of ice sheets as global surface temperature increases.
Forecasts for climate change by the 2,000 scientists on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) project a rise in the global average surface temperature by 1.4 to 5.8°C from 1990 to 2100. This will result in a global mean sea level rise by an average of 5 mm per year over the next 100 years. Consequently, human-induced climate change will have ?deleterious effects? on ecosystems, socio-economic systems and human welfare.At the moment, especially high risks associated with the rise of the oceans are having a particular impact on the two archipelagic states of Western Polynesia: Tuvalu and Kiribati. According to UN forecasts, they may be completely inundated by the rising waters of the Pacific by 2050.According to the vast majority of scientific investigations, warming waters and the melting of polar and high-elevation ice worldwide will steadily raise sea levels. This will likely drive people off islands first by spoiling the fresh groundwater, which will kill most land plants and leave no potable water for humans and their livestock. Low-lying island states like Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives are the most prominent nations threatened in this way.“The biggest challenge is to preserve their nationality without a territory,” said Bogumil Terminski from Geneva. The best solution is continue to recognize deterritorialized states as a normal states in public international law. The case of Kiribati and other small island states is a particularly clear call to action for more secure countries to respond to the situations facing these ‘most vulnerable nations’, as climate change increasingly impacts upon their lives.
Great post- the climate refugee topic is one near and dear to my heart too- keep up the good work! – Brook at http://www.drowningislands.com.