The League of Women Voters of Colorado’s Climate Emergency Task Force believes that we need to act immediately. Join our Human Migration and Climate Justice Team!
1. Our Mission
Human Migration and Climate Justice
People move. And they move again and again and again. Technically, people as well as animals migrate, always in search of something better, food, water, safety, maybe curiosity? Because of recent research like the National Geographic Genome Project, scientists have discovered that all of humanity residing on Earth today has roots in Africa. Those whose ancestors never left Africa have only the African ancestry.
Most of the rest of Earth inhabitants have both some Neanderthal and some Denisovan, hominid cousins, in their genetic markers. Both female and male genetic markers indicate that the small groups that left Africa encountered the others and kept moving, migrating, until they spread all over the world. Along the way, they wandered, meandered, met and overcame difficulties, thrived or not, created civilizations and some disappeared. Human migration is not at all new.
But today, there are new factors afoot. One of the biggest factors is climate change. And the human migration is well underway. Raging wildfires, rising sea levels, hurricanes, drought, scorching heat waves plague more people each year. For many individuals migrating is a matter of survival. If people have the means, they can develop a plan, seek help, move, but move in a fairly easy way. But what if they are poor? What if there is civil unrest, war along the way? Some stay and try to cope. Others, simply walk away and try to find a way to a better life, to jobs, to safety, to a chance at something. Who leaves? Who stays? Where do the migrants go? Is there any justice for those who stay? Those who leave? What problems need to be solved? Is there anything to be done to ease the problems? What are some of the biggest problems?
Fresh water is becoming scarce. A 2018 study published in the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists suggests that 1 in 12 Americans in the southern half of the country will move toward the mountain west where the cities are not prepared for large influxes of people. Such movement may cause crowding, more income inequality, testing the capabilities of the cities to provide basic services.
Human migration and climate justice are both a significant part of every climate change issue on the books, energy, clean water, air quality, transportation. For survival, people need to move, to thrive. Migration is not something we can stop. Nor should we. We must move quickly and together for legislation and policies, regulations and rules which not only chip away at the causes of resource shortages, the sources of pollutions, but also to support the needs of the people who are on the move because of climate change.
Migration Case Studies
2. Take Action!
Email Pat Mesec at kenpatm@aol.com for more information or to join the Human Migration Team.