Emma Shakan
As droughts persisted mercilessly through Boquilla, Mexico and Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, the farmers’ crops continued to fail. Water was still nowhere to be found, and in result of the widespread crop failure another threat loomed above their heads, and over their communities; the threat of starvation. Climate change completely uprooted most of these famers’ lives, the slow shift of their environment forcing them to face unsolvable issues such as floods, droughts, debt, and deplorable sanitary conditions. In Guatemala, “rainfall is expected to decrease by 60% in some parts of the country, and the amount of water replenishing streams and keeping soil moist will drop as much as 83%” (Lustgarten). Without the most basic of resources to live, along with hotspots continuing to increase, climate driven migration has revealed itself to be one of the largest factors for the continuation of displaced people around the world. The New York Times presents that 1% of the world is in a barely livable hot zone, by 2070 that portion could go up by 19% (Lustgarten). Already, these almost inhabitable hot zones are forcing millions of lives to find new homes that provide more acceptable living condition. While these midpoints are considered to be a more acceptable living condition, rural areas, and refugee camps are not completely safe either.
Refugee camps are equipped with barely functional tents and plastic tarps to provide cover from the weather. They are packed full of people who are unable to stay 6ft away from each other as the pandemic sky rockets in numbers. Many families find these camps completely unsuitable for their families, and for good reason. The alternative option being rural areas, patrolled by violent gangs, conflict, and controversy, where it is difficult to find a job and affordable living. The only alternative left is fleeing to countries like the United States who are restricting the crossing of their borders, and hunting down refugees like enemies. For years, the United States has considered refugees as someone who “demonstrates that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.” (USCIS), but as climate change slowly reveals itself, as Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence predicts, it shows that war and conflict are far from the only reasons that thousands are fleeing from their homes to unfamiliar borders, with no knowledge of said countries policies, arriving with only what they could carry. Climate change is proving to be one of the most Earth-shattering slow violence of them all.
Under extreme circumstances, many refugees are driven to risk their lives seeking asylum. Asylum should be offered to any individual that has limited or no access to basic human needs; water, food, shelter, or even air conditioning when the temperatures rise so high it can lead to death. Scientists repeatedly warned of these crises; they warned of mass migration due to climate change and they alerted countries such as the United States to prepare for it. The United States did nothing. They sealed their borders tighter, locking families in unlivable conditions such as places in Guatemala. The United States failed to advert the predicted problems of the pandemic, and “cut off foreign aid, from water infrastructure to green house agriculture” (Lustgarten). As humanity itself cannot reverse climate change, there are so many ways for us to buy more time, and help the families and countries affected by the catastrophes of climate change. If humanity proceeds to let these changes dominate the way people live, and do nothing to prepare for it, soon most of the world will be faced with unimaginable complications and predicaments. The impact of overpopulation results in increased consumption, deeper environmental degradations, forced migrations, extreme overcrowding, more conflict, more hunger, and now even more so than ever, death by disease.
Citations:
Kitroeff, Natalie. “’This Is a War’: Cross-Border Fight Over Water Erupts in Mexico.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Oct. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/world/americas/mexico-water-boquilla-dam.html?campaign_id=51&emc=edit_MBE_p_20201015&instance_id=23151&nl=morning-
Lustgarten, Abrahm. “The Great Climate Migration Has Begun.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 July 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html?campaign_id=51&emc=edit_MBE_p_20200724&instance_id=20581&nl=morning.
Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard University Press, 2013.
“Refugees.” USCIS, 7 May 2020, www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-and-asylum/refugees.