Concord Monitor, Aug. 13:
Oceans are great insulators. They moderate the weather, reducing extremes of heat and cold, and they are a barrier to invaders. The Atlantic and Pacific have largely protected Americans from the nonstop arrival of thousands upon thousands of refugees fleeing war and persecution and economic migrants, residents of impoverished lands whose people have run out of hope. But what happens when the ocean itself becomes the invader?
There are, by United Nations estimates, currently about 60 million people, or one in every 122 people on Earth, who have been displaced from their homeland. The burden of coping with them has fallen to the nations of the European Union and to countries such as Turkey and Pakistan that are themselves poor. The migration crisis has created dissension, argument and a moral quandary not easily resolved.
Glaciers are melting and seas are rising faster than scientists predicted just a few years ago.
James Hansen, the former NASA climatologist who more than anyone fought to have the threat of climate change taken seriously, recently warned that sea levels are increasing 10 times faster than predicted. By the time a kindergartner signs up for Social Security, sea levels could be 10 feet higher; cities like Miami, Washington, D.C., Boston and Portsmouth submerged. Globally, the International Panel on Climate Change estimates up to a billion people could be displaced.
Both fates, at least the worst aspects of them, could likely be avoided by quick and reasonably unified action. A high tax on carbon emissions adopted by polluting nations like the United States, India and China, Hansen says, could significantly slow temperature rise. Actions to combat the conditions that force people from their homes – unemployment, poverty, famine and strife – would slow the outflow of the desperate.
The United States has a responsibility to act on both fronts. Until fairly recently, it was the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Despite its culpability, the nation has been slow to combat climate change. Most progress made in recent years has been by presidential rather than congressional action. Congressional Republicans, and a good many Republican governors, continue to sink anchors deep into the polluting past. By doing so, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon, they are threatening national security .
Many of the nation’s military bases, including the Virginia bases that are home to the heart of the Navy, are already coping with coastal flooding. A few feet more of sea level rise and they’ll be under water. Same with the Air Force bases in Florida. Other bases are threatened by drought, water shortages and wildfires, all thought related to climate change.
The United States, which has watched from afar as overloaded boats of refugees sink en route to Italy or Greece, has urged Europe to do more. But as with the flow of migrants north through Mexico from Central American nations, part of the blame for the situation lies with us. The war in Iraq and American support for efforts to topple dictators in Libya and Syria have, while well-intended, contributed to the refugee crisis. America’s appetite for illegal drugs and its efforts to overthrow some Central American governments and support others inadvertently contributed to conditions that fuel the exodus. To reduce the security risks created by global warming and stem the flow of migrants, the United States must act to reduce carbon emissions and improve economic conditions in impoverished countries.
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