Beyond Borders: Our Changing Climate – Its Role in Conflict and Displacement
Publisher: Environmental Justice Foundation
Date: 2017
Topics: Climate Change, Humanitarian Assistance, Renewable Resources
As I write this, levels of carbon dioxide in our global atmosphere have just exceeded 410 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history, they haven’t reached this level for millions of years. Scientists predicted that this would happen, and it has. The consequences are reflected in recent temperatures across our planet: June 2017 was the 390th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average; and March 2017 experienced the second highest (March) temperature since global records began in 1880.
What this means for our global community is profound: climate change will exacerbate extreme poverty, food insecurity and inequitable access to natural resources including freshwater. It is compounding existing economic, social, political, and ecological stresses and building vulnerability amongst some of the poorest communities on our planet. Advances in combatting food and water insecurity, poverty, inequality and toward promoting environmental sustainability, healthcare, education and peace all stand to be undermined as our world heats up, extreme weather events proliferate and magnify, sea levels rise and our oceans acidify; as humanity fnds itself inundated by too much water and damned by too little.