Author: Ottoline Mary

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UN Human Rights Committee Sides with Torres Strait Islanders

1 October 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

There has been an update on the case of the Torres Strait Islanders’ struggle for protection against the threat of climate-induced displacement. Already mentioned in an earlier Earth Refuge article, these low-lying lands, mainly populated by First Nations Australians, are facing a sea level rise which is double that of the global average. In addition to the direct damages caused by the floods themselves (such as infrastructure and crop destruction), the latter also deplete environmental resources such as edible fish, thereby jeopardising food security in the region.

Back in 2019, a group of local residents filed a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee, denouncing the Australian government’s failure to adapt to climate change and to protect impacted communities (e.g., by upgrading seawalls). Last week, the UN Human Rights Committee finally issued a decision declaring that “Australia’s failure to adequately protect indigenous Torres Islanders against adverse impacts of climate change violated their rights to enjoy their culture and be free from arbitrary interferences with their private life, family, and home”. Consequently, the Committee has urged the Australian government to “compensate the indigenous Islanders for the harm suffered, engage in meaningful consultations with their communities to assess their needs, and take measures to continue to secure the communities’ safe existence on their respective islands”.

In this case, individuals successfully took the matter into their own hands to compensate for their government’s failure to take relevant climate action. This development is indicative of what appears to be a trend of change in the global political landscape, where civil society actors and even individuals are seizing the power that national systems fail to exert to protect their people.

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UNHCR Urges Response to “Biblical Proportion” Floods in Pakistan

9 September 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

Since the beginning of the 2022 rainy season, “Biblical proportion” floods in Pakistan have killed 1300 people, injured 12,500, and provoked the displacement of 634,000. Over one third of the country is currently under water, and one in seven Pakistanis have been affected.

Due to geographical parameters, Pakistan has always been particularly vulnerable to floods. However, the frequency and scope of extreme weather events are exacerbated by global warming. In the present case, three months of incessant monsoon rain are not only destroying infrastructure but also jeopardising food security through crop damage – which is contributing to aggravate the country’s rampant inflation and “further entrenching Pakistan’s compounding economic and political crises”.

Last week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched a global humanitarian campaign aiming to mitigate the consequences of this disaster. The organisation has mounted an airlift operation to supply the most heavily impacted regions with tents, sleeping mats, kitchen sets, and sheets of waterproof canvas.

Funds are also being mobilised to support the Pakistani government in its assistance to households, including through an online donation portal.

The situation could further deteriorate in weeks to come, as the Pakistan Meteorological Department predicts increased rainfall in the coming month.

A global and tailored response is vital to repair damages and curtail further destruction. In addition to the principle of solidarity, there is an ethical case for Global North countries to commit to alleviate climate-induced hazards in the Global South, given that the former are historically responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the lack of technology and funds to build flood-resistant infrastructure can also be attributed to historical biases in favour of today’s most powerful nations.

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A New Study Predicts Severe Droughts in the Indus Basin

31 August 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

The Indus River is the 19th longest in the world. It originates in the Tibetan Himalayas, and flows through northern India and Pakistan into the Arabian Sea.

Since the development of the famous Indus Valley Civilisation in the 4th millennium BC, local livelihoods have relied heavily on its terrestrial water supply – that is, “the summation of all water on the land surface and in the subsurface”, including ice, river water, and soil moisture. For this reason, the Tibetan Plateau is often referred to as a major “global water tower” – which partially explains why the region is the object of so many geopolitical tensions.  

But a recent article from the New Indian Express shares the results of a recent satellite-based assessment of water changes in the region, quantifying the effects of global warming-induced glacier retreat, lake expansion, and below-ground water loss.

Without a significant increase in climate policy, the study projects an 80% water loss in the Indus basin by 2050. Such decline in freshwater availability over the Tibetan Plateau would entail a loss of livelihoods for 2 billion residents of India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

If we fail to meaningfully reduce the global carbon emissions currently generated by the burning of fossil fuels, we can expect colossal forced displacement flows in the region 25 years from now.

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COP27: An Opportunity for Egypt

white and blue boat on water near city buildings during daytime

25 August 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

A recent article from Arab News offers some insights on the 2022 edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, which will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) in November.

The upcoming summit represents an opportunity to raise awareness of the climate-related issues encountered by the MENA region, whose interests are often dismissed in global decision-making.

For example, during the 56th session of the Bonn Climate Change Conference that took place two months ago, a coalition of developing country representatives suggested that mitigating the devastating impacts of climate change throughout the Global South could be facilitated by implementing a Global North-funded international mechanism. However, despite wealthy nations being the main contributors to global warming, the initiative was rejected by the EU.

In addition, the event is providing Egypt with an incentive to address its own national climate challenges. For example, the high levels of pollution (especially in Cairo) are affecting air quality and, thus, causing health problems amongst at least 2 million residents each year.

After seven years of negotiations, the overall stake of COP27 is to prompt the implementation of the Paris Agreement at each country’s national level. As phrased by Zitouni Ould-Dada, deputy director of the FAO’s Climate and Environment Division, “the costs of inaction would be higher than the costs of action”.

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Can Climate-Resilient Seeds Prevent Nepal’s Imminent Food Crisis?

green plant on persons hand

12 August 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

Climate change is compromising food security throughout the Global South. The scale and frequency of heatwaves, fires, floods, and landslides are increasing, causing a significant drop in crop production. In addition to heightening the risk of famines, this jeopardises the livelihoods of farmers, as well as large-scale economies.

In Nepal, food production cycles are planned around the alternance of dry and rainy seasons. Global warming dysregulates and exacerbates these natural weather phenomena, to the point of undermining crop and vegetable production. On the one hand, excessive rainfall is flooding farmlands and aggravating soil erosion. On the other hand, droughts are hampering cultures that require lots of water, such as rice paddies. As a result, farmers become unable to meet the national demand for food, and the country has to increase its fresh vegetable imports – which takes a toll on the rest of the economy. Moreover, crop failure directly threatens the means of subsistence of over 3.2 million Nepalese families.

One of the solutions envisaged to sustain the country’s agricultural productivity is the adoption of genetically modified climate-resilient seeds, capable of tolerating extreme climatic stresses. Not only can they endure both submergence and drought, but they also contain more nutrients than regular seeds, and do not require excess maintenance or resources.

Practical considerations remain to be addressed, such as the raising of awareness among farmers who may be reluctant to adopt new types of seeds. Furthermore, we could wonder how those seeds would impact ecosystems, and whether their implementation would entrance Nepal’s dependency on foreign companies for its economic survival.

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Bangladesh Develops Resilient Cities to Accommodate Climate Migrants

3 August 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

As a low-lying country centred around a large delta plain, the geography of Bangladesh makes it particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events, which are exacerbated by global warming. The Climate Reality Project estimates that by 2050, one in every seven people in the country will have been displaced by climate-related disasters. Already, more than ten million Bangladeshis have lost their livelihoods to floods, and have been forced to relocate to other regions.

Most of them seek refuge in Dhaka, hoping for job opportunities. But the capital has become so overpopulated that the government is now encouraging the economic development of alternative destinations for climate migrants. This strategy, labelled “transformative adaptation”, is based on the work of Professor Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (Dhaka). The goal is to “divert people to smaller urban centres with the capacity to expand and, crucially, jobs to sustain a rapidly growing workforce”.

Amongst them, one city stands out: the South-Western seaport of Mongla, where, in recent years, tens of thousands of dollars have been invested in climate-resilient infrastructure and in export processing industries. In addition, the government monitors the social inclusion of the city’s new residents – including in the field of education, through a dialogue with local schools and universities.

Mongla is currently celebrated for its uniqueness, but is designed as a prototype for future climate-resilient cities in Bangladesh and beyond. This type of initiative brings hope for forcibly displaced populations throughout the Global South, yet the situation remains extremely precarious, and the fight for climate justice is more urgent than ever.

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Recent Greenpeace Report Highlights the Neo-Colonial Dimension of Climate Change

Europe map

28 July 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

As a global dynamic generating an unfair distribution of power and wealth, colonialism is largely responsible for shaping the North-South divide that we witness today. Moreover, many aspects of our lives remain determined by its ongoing legacies. Whether glaring or more insidious, these legacies tend to underlie our relationship to the world, and should especially be factored in when analysing global events.

A recent Greenpeace report highlights the colonial roots of climate change.

“Colonisation established the model of a global extractive economy, [as well as] a model through which the air and lands of the Global South have been polluted or used as places to dump waste that the Global North does not want.“

Moreover, neo-colonial dynamics continue to protect the West from the consequences of its actions, while the rest of the world burns. The negative impacts of climate change tend to concentrate in regions that have barely contributed to the global greenhouse effect; this mismatch of vulnerability and responsibility coincides with a power imbalance stemming largely from colonialism.

The same dynamic is reproduced at a sub-national level in Western countries, where people of colour are overexposed to the consequences of climate change. For example, the London borough of Newham has both the highest level of air pollution and the highest Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority population in England.

By calling attention to the neo-colonial dimensions of climate change, this report provides us with conceptual tools to reflect on climate-induced migration – for instance, by supporting the inclusion of climate reparations in the global case for colonial reparations.

Read the report here!

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Global Warming Threatens Historical Everest Base Camp

Hikers at a base camp at Mount Everest

28 July 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

Everest’s South Base Camp, located on the Nepalese side of the highest mountain in the world, has served as the starting point for climbers for 70 years.

Sadly, this historical landmark is due to be abandoned in years to come, as the result of safety concerns stemming from the effects of global warming. The current settlement is established on a glacier located at the foot of a 300 meter-high icefall, and the accelerated glacial melting is exacerbating the risks experienced during mountaineering expeditions. For example, climbers have been reporting an increasing number of crevasses appearing around their tents. As a result, it has been decided that Base Camp will be relocated at a lower altitude.

This phenomenon is aggravated by the climbers themselves. The surge in human activity since the boom of commercial climbing in the 1990s (rising from an average of 180 summits per year in the 1980s to 5,561 in the 2010s) is further threatening the mountain’s fragile ecosystem. On a typical day at Base Camp, an average of 4000 litres of urine are produced, in addition to large amounts of kerosene and gas being burned for cooking and heating.

Therefore, the continued commercial exploitation of Mount Everest has ethical implications. On the one hand, it contributes to environmental destruction – which, in the long run, might undermine residents’ livelihoods. But on the other hand, the local economy has become highly dependent on the tourism industry – as shown by the crisis following the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. This type of dilemma illustrates the complex overlapping of natural phenomena and human activity, and the urgent need to reconcile them in the light of the global climate emergency.

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Heatwave-Induced Wildfires Displace Thousands Across Southern Europe

silhouette of trees during sunset

21 July 2022 – by Ottoline Mary

The ongoing European heatwave has brought about many tragedies. Among them, the media’s attention has been focusing on wildfires, which have already destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of land – three times the average for this time of year. Such events do not only negatively impact biodiversity and the economies that rely on it; they also pose a direct threat to human life.

As a result of these wildfires, the authorities have carried out mass evacuations of local populations and holidaymakers, with as many as 15,000 people displaced in less than 24 hours in the French department of Gironde. The phenomenon is spreading throughout the Mediterranean, affecting parts of Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Croatia, Greece, Crete, and Turkey.

A Malaga resident says she barely had time to grab a few essentials before making a run for it. The emergency has prompted the construction of temporary shelters to house recent evacuees. However, a long-term resettlement solution is yet to be found.

When disasters such as this occur in the Global South, it is customary for Western governments and companies to dismiss the dangers of climate change. But today, extreme weather events are multiplying before their eyes. Could this finally be the wake-up call Western leaders needed to take actionable steps and save our planet from extinction?