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The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
  • John Wihbey, Yale Climate Connections

    Nuancing “Climate Refugee” Language and Images

    December 18, 2015 By Wilson Center Staff
    Zaatari-Refugee-Camp

    The original version of this article, by John Wihbey, appeared on Yale Climate Connections.

    Migrants and Syrian refugees have become the new “stranded polar bear” of climate change imagery. But most such impacts will seldom be so dramatic or camera-ready.

    Human-induced climate change is an underlying factor in the Syrian Civil War. It is driving the sea-level rise imperiling small island nations. And it is having a disproportionately negative impact on vulnerable, poorer nations in Asia and Africa, such as Bangladesh and Sudan.

    Pictures of war, flight, famine, and human ruin may be replacing the iconic and controversial “polar bear on the iceberg” as the central public images representing the consequences of climate change. For the first time, they put a human “face” on the global scientific phenomenon.

    The security implications of climate change – long discussed among insiders, and highlighted by big thinkers such as Jeffrey Sachs – are suddenly coming into better focus for the public. Indeed, there has been a virtual superstorm of media coverage this year highlighting the degree to which climate change can drive human migration in dramatic fashion. The language is often stark.

    Continue reading on Yale Climate Connections.

    Sources: Scientific American, Yale Climate Connections.

    Photo Credit: Za’atari Refugee Camp, Jordan, November 2012, courtesy of UNHCR.

    Topics: adaptation, Africa, Bangladesh, climate change, conflict, development, environment, environmental security, flooding, livelihoods, migration, natural resources, security, South Asia, Sudan, Syria

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