According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, there are at least 20 million people who are forced from their homes because of severe climate changes each year. The people most impacted now live in the parts of the world that have been dominated, politically and economically, by the major capitalist powers. They are often the most vulnerable to climatic disasters.
The Horn of Africa, the northeastern part of Ethiopia down to Kenya is facing massive desertification, the drying of already arid lands, with crop failures and major die-offs of animals, both domestic and wild. China’s massive desertification, is now affecting 400 million people. Meanwhile the heaviest rains in 140 years have flooded Hong Kong.
When we look at the currently vulnerable parts of the world, we are getting a glimpse of the future we will all be facing if we allow the continued burning of fossil fuels.
And our oceans are heating as well. The island nations of the Pacific are facing the reality of sea level rise and climate change making some portions of the island nations uninhabitable. Planned relocations of entire villages are underway. If we would look at the Earth as an island in space, we might begin to look at our situation through the eyes of the people on the islands. We are in this together. No one is exempt.
