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This is an illustration of what may happen if we do not take preemptive measures towards the climate refugees.
The climate refugee crisis reaches epic proportions. The vast shanty town that stretches across London’s centre leaves historic buildings marooned, including Buckingham Palace.
The Royal family is surrounded in their London home. Everybody is on the move and the flooded city centre is now uninhabitable and empty – apart from the thousands of shanty-dwellers. But should empty buildings and land be opened up to climate refugees?
Image © Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones.
Background photography © Jason Hawkes
London as Venice.
Would love to go to Venice?
Well, think no more. In the near future, with the raising sea-level, this is what London will look like.
London has become uninhabitable. Every year spring tides surge through the Thames Barrier, making London the new Venice. But whereas the city of gondolas has come to terms with water, London is overwhelmed.
This image shows the impact of 6-metre flooding, the level required to breach the Thames Barrier.
Image © Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones.
Background photography © Jason Hawkes
How can we really help?
The issue of Climate Change seems complex enough to deal with, when adding the after effects on both the environment and the human population, the problem seems overwhelming.
A solution in combating or decreasing the effects of climate change and thus climate refugees can be done on a personal level, of decreesing reliance of fossil fuels that quicken the greenhouse effect, these include petrol and coal.
Currently there is no international law that protects climate refugees, this issue needs to be addressed when preditions of sea levels rising are in the near future. This can change.
Sending an e-mail, making a phone call or writing a letter (on recyclable paper, we hope) to your member of parliament, senator, state representative or even to federal powers, shows community support and involvement in securing law that will protect these people.
On our Facebook page there are model letters/e-mails or voice messages that you can use or you can write your own, and let our elected representatives know that this law must change :)
What would you do…….
Climate Refugees - A documentary.
This is the trailer to the documentary worth watching and paying attention to.
“It is now, and it is happening.”
HELP Climate Refugees - The Petition
Hey everyone,
This would be the easiest thing we can do. Signing the “HELP CLIMATE REFUGEES” Petition on CARE2 website. Some of us may not bothered to write a long letter to our governments informing them on climate refugees.
(They probably keep their eyes shut on this, anyways…)
Anyways, it is also worth noting that climate refugees are not only the communities that are affected by sea-level rise on the low-lying land and islands, but also those communities that are affected by the drying up of their lands; drought and water shortages.
It is virtually impossible for them to live at their homeland, because the place has dried up so severely. The picture below shows the water scarcity in the northern part of China:
Read more: China orders $13-billion Drought Relief for Wheat Growers
By signing the petition on the first link we provided you, you will be at least helping to raise the awareness of the climate refugees.
We will be posting more petitions as we find them on the internet. :)
Cheers,
Beyond The Heat.
World Wide Waves
With sea levels expected to rise between 0.4 -0.9 meters over the next decade, people globally will be effected.
Approximately 5-6 million Australians. 12 million Americans and about 9 million poeple of the United Kingdom.
Currently these and the millions of others are not protected by international law. We have the power and responsibility to change this.
A rise in water levels of such magnitude will see islands all over the world disappear, forever. Cultures, eco-systems, sacred lands and family homes will be gone.
Petitioning to governments all over the world and showing your concern (for your home or others) can move democratic cogs to form laws that help and protect those who would otherwise be washed away.
Climate refugees in the Pacific
While the rest of the world continues to debate the implications of climate change, for people living on small Pacific islands the problem is startlingly real.
Loss of land, crops and freshwater supplies caused by rising sea levels threaten to diminish living conditions in many Pacific island states, and pose a serious risk to regional stability and security.
On Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) Carteret Islands residents have already been relocated to nearby Bougainville as rising seas lap at their villages and threaten to swamp their homes.
Read more: WWF - Australia
