Israel: Climate refugees are coming! Close the borders!

I can think of a lot more pressing reasons for Israel to close its borders, but climate change works.

I hadn’t seen any ‘climate refugee’ stories lately (but I kind of thought the “crisis” had gone away!).   This is a very worthwhile read from the Jerusalem Post in which the “deterioration” of Africa is discussed.   In the US, mainstream environmental advocates (so entwined with the hard Left) would never use saving the environment of the homeland (or saving the country!) as a reason to close the borders.

JPost:

In order to combat increased waves of illegal migration that will likely accompany climate change, Israel must secure its borders through impassable barriers, including “sea fences” along the Mediterranean and Red Sea, experts have concluded.

“The lack of water, warming and sea level rise, even if it will occur on a different schedule, will bring migration movements from all impoverished regions to every place where it is possible to escape this,” wrote a team of academics, led by Prof. Arnon Soffer and Dr. Anton Berkovsky of the University of Haifa’s Geography Department.

The team’s conclusions appeared in just one “geo-strategy” chapter in a nearly 200-page report of recommendations toward adapting to climate change, submitted collectively by about 100 experts at the Israel Climate Change Knowledge Center to Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan on Monday.

Be sure to let the snakes through!

Among its suggestions for how to handle the geo-strategic implications of climate change, the team led by Soffer called for a complete enclosure of Israel from all directions, including establishing sea fences along the Mediterranean and Red seas. In addition, the experts said that additional law enforcement will be required to deal with the ramifications of securing the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, as economic crisis might ensue for Negev Beduins who trade across these turfs. While securing Israel from all sides, however, the authorities must ensure for the safe passage of animals and plants.  [Snakes needing free passage are mentioned later in the article---ed].

“The migration wave is not a problem for the future. It is today, it is going on now,” Soffer told The Jerusalem Post on Monday evening. “It will just increase from day to day.”

Read the article.  There is some discussion about how European countries are ruthlessly turning back immigrants, but frankly I don’t see that.  Heck, just as one example, Africans are landing on Malta it seems every day—some are then being moved on to other European countries (here is one story about France giving the red carpet treatment to new French voters from Malta).

Why the UN is so hot on pushing the climate refugee issue

Reader John Williams sent us a link to an insightful post  on the Volokh Conspiracy that explains the motives of the UN on the climate refugee issue that we’ve started to follow again. 

We are used to reading such stories as the politicization of science and its corruption by the politics of the UN, funders, and, to be sure, the desire of some scientists to switch professions from research to policy.  We hear about it because it is correct.

But there is another — no less unimpressive — way to understand the story.  That is from the standpoint of the long term incentives of the United Nations and its many agencies.  Seen from the standpoint of climate change and its scientists and environmental activists alone, this story looks to be about hyperbolic claims about the immediate effects of climate change.  Seen from the standpoint of the longer history of the UN, it is much more about the long-running movements by the UN to find issues that tend to do two things.  One is to increase the institutional UN’s governance responsibilities, authority, legitimacy, and power.  The other is to increase the amount of money that runs through UN mechanisms from rich countries to poor countries, with an administrative cut to the UN itself.

He goes on to point out that environmentalists and others who are pleased when the UN takes up their cause are not aware of these motives, and don’t understand that UN officials don’t give a fig about their particular cause. When the current one has run out of steam, they just move on to another one. Now they’re trying to prolong the climate refugee cause by postponing the date of the apocalypse.

Whoops! UN tries to hide the nonexistent 50 million climate refugees

This is hilarious.  Anthony Watts at the Daily Caller has a piece called The UN ‘disappears’ 50 million climate refugees, then botches the cover-up.

The piece I posted about on April 14, What happened to the climate refugees? has been picked up by several media outlets, and the UN has tried to take the map of “at-risk” places off the internet. The Daily Caller relates their failure, and ends its piece thusly:

And there you have it, folks, another bogus climate claim rubbished by reality, followed by an inept cover-up attempt.

Thanks to the reality of census numbers, followed by the UN’s handling of this, we can now safely say that the claim of “climate refugees” is total fantasy. Be sure to leave comments on any website that makes this claim, and link to this and the Asian Correspondent website.

Kudos to Gavin Atkins for asking this simple question after six years of this fantasy being used to push an agenda.

Update: The UN now says that there will be 50 million climate change refugees by 2020. [The date was originally by 2010. I suppose they can keep postponing the date into eternity.--Judy]

Remember the climate refugees?

For a while we heard a lot about climate refugees. Ann put up 18 posts on the subject — see the category in the list to the left.  Here’s a recent post from Gavin Atkins at Asian Correspondent.com, What happened to the climate refugees? He begins:

In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010. These people, it was said, would flee a range of disasters including sea level rise, increases in the numbers and severity of hurricanes, and disruption to food production.

He links to a map that shows the places said to be at risk for producing climate refugees. Then he goes down a list of at-risk places that have had censuses since 2005 and shows that their populations have grown since then. Some are islands — the Bahamas, the Seychelles etc.  And –

Meanwhile, far from being places where people are fleeing, no fewer than the top six of the very fastest growing cities in China, Shenzzen, Dongguan, Foshan, Zhuhai, Puning and Jinjiang, are absolutely smack bang within the shaded areas identified as being likely sources of climate refugees.

Similarly, many of the fastest growing cities in the United States also appear within or close to the areas identified by the UNEP as at risk of having climate refugees.

In fact, in general those places identified as at-risk for producing climate refugees are growing fast.

The first comment is from the Spokesperson for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), who says it wasn’t his agency that projected the 50 million figure. But –

That does not mean there are not environmental refugees including climate ones. But we do not have any projections ourselves.  There are however quite a lot of universities/research centres around the world trying to unravel this complex issue.

The second comment is more entertaining:

Fortunately, in January 2009, the oceans began to recede and the planet to heal.

 

Actually it’s more than entertaining; it’s pretty perceptive. It’s amazing how many problems became non-problems as soon as Barack Obama took office.

 

Hat tip: James Taranto

 

Catholic Bishops aim to bring their flocks around on global warming

…..and gotta save those climate refugees!

In a book review on climate refugees, Todd Scribner, employed by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, says the Bishops are working on changing the minds of skeptical Catholics on global warming (aka climate change, when the warming didn’t pan out).  This climate refugee book just might help do the trick, he says!

The review of‘Climate Refugee’ at National Catholic Reporter begins:

This book argues that the legal definition of a refugee should be expanded to cover those severely affected by the environmental consequences of climate change.

Some estimates predict that as climate change continues, as many 200 million people will be displaced worldwide by the end of the century. Collectif Argos is a group of 10 France-based journalists, writers and photographers who have documented the effects of environmental change in photo and essay format.

The authors focus on nine sites around the world, including the United States, Bangladesh, Chad, Nepal and a small island in the Pacific Ocean, Tuvalu.

[....]

Given the reality of global warming, this book is timely, as is rethinking the definition of “refugee.” [Some in the refugee industry do not want the definition changed, here----ed]

Catholics, like other Americans, are skeptical of the proposition that global warming (aka climate change) is induced by human activity especially after “Climategate.”

Recognizing “climate refugees” as a legal category faces obstacles. The recent “Climategate” controversy raised hackles in some circles regarding the validity of human-induced climate change. If these objections were restricted to a handful of talking heads, there would be little reason for concern. Unfortunately, there is evidence that skepticism over the science of human-induced climate change has broad appeal. The results of a March Gallup poll revealed that only half of Americans agree to the proposition that climate change is caused by human activity, down from 61 percent just seven years earlier.

American Catholics are not exempt from this tendency. Although slightly dated, the results from a Pew Forum poll published in April 2009 showed that Catholics in the United States are wary of the issue, with only 44 percent of those polled in agreement with the claim that we are experiencing human-induced global warming.

Skeptics beware:  The Catholic Bishops are working hard with your tax dollars to convince you that you are wrong!

While many Catholics may be skeptical, my work at the U.S. bishops’ conference demonstrates that the bishops take this issue seriously. This is particularly apparent through their establishment of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change.  This coalition, comprised of approximately a dozen national Catholic organizations, recognizes the devastating effect of climate change, particularly on the world’s poor, and the likelihood of displacement that will come with it. Through this coalition the bishops seek to educate the Catholic public and convince them of the peril of human-induced climate change.

Climate Refugees [this book] could provide a useful resource to achieve this objective.

By the way, when you visit the ‘coalition’ note that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, is a branch of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.  For new readers these are socialist political activists discussed recently in another book—this one on President Obama’s early years, here, in an interview at National Review Online:

Author Stanley Kurtz on ‘Radical-in-chief:’

…. the community organizing I discuss in the book is a self-consciously radical tradition that flows from the early achievements of Saul Alinsky, along with the work of Students for a Democratic Society and the National Welfare Rights Organization in the early-to-mid 1960s. The leadership of these groups was largely socialist, and remained so as they moved into community organizing in the 1970s and beyond. More to the point, the community organizers who trained and worked with Obama were largely socialist, although they made a point of not advertising that fact. Even the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, a faith-based group that has done much to support community organizing (including Obama’s own early work), is an effectively socialist group, although it doesn’t say so directly. My book carefully unpacks a great deal of archival evidence to substantiate these claims.

Also for new readers, I showed you here last month how much of your tax dollars go to funding the political activities (supposedly to help refugees resettle) of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

So, it’s no surprise that the USCCB is busy trying to change the definition of refugee to include those forced to move due to environmental factors—refugees are their cash cow and the refugees themselves will be their reliable Left-leaning (socialist!) voters of tomorrow.

Endnote:  It’s been 20 years since I first learned about the big foundations with atheist strategists, particularly Pew Charitable Trusts, coming up with the idea of infiltrating church groups with a project called —Greening the Churches.  Now we see their fruits.

Still beating the drum about “climate refugees”

At a meeting in Bangladesh recently “experts” insisted that “climate refugees” would cause security issues throughout the world as they tried to move away from some climate-driven crisis to another country.   I thought after the failure of Copenhagen and the revelations of  a major scientific hoax centered at the UN, all this hoopla was going away. 

Looks like third world countries are still beating the “climate refugee” drum hoping ultimately for a redistribution of wealth from the evil capitalists.  They know how to pull on heartstrings using the word “refugee” even when they have been admonished not to use the word by the elites in the real refugee community like Refugees International, here.

From the Daily Star (Dhaka, Bangladesh):

Security and climate experts yesterday called for concerted efforts to address the issue of climate-driven migration, which will be the major cause of inter-countries conflicts.

As climate refugees of a country would try to enter a neighbouring country for their livelihoods, a conflict might arise between the two countries, said Maj Gen (retd) Muniruzzaman, president of Bangladesh Institute for Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS).

So, all the countries should take steps to address the security issues, which might result from global climate change, he said.

Climate refugees have already started to migrate internally from the remote areas to urban, which will lead to international migration and pose a threat to security, he added.  [Is it possible these are economic migrants moving from rural to urban areas looking for work or welfare!-ed]

Maj Gen (retd) Muniruzzaman made the remarks at a press conference at the end of a two-day regional expert roundtable on ‘Security implications of climate change in South Asia’ at a city hotel.

It would not be possible for any country alone to manage a large number of climate refugees, he said and stressed the need for concerted efforts of all countries to address the issue.

Here are some of the suggestions Refugees International has made for what to call these new “refugees:”   

People displaced by climate change (PDCCs)? Climate displaced people (CDPs)? People affected by climatic events (PACEs)?

Not as sexy or appealing for media purposes as “climate refugee.”

International Campaign on Climate Refugees’ Rights launched in Copenhagen

They are calling themselves the ICCR (I don’t know what happened to the other ‘R’) and they want justice and reparations.  I have a whole bunch of articles to post on “climate refugees” from Copenhagen, but am just posting this one tonight to give you a flavor of how it’s going and what we will no doubt be treated to for years to come.  It seems that Bangladesh is the brains behind this cabal of community organizers.  I wonder if Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ was translated into Bangla.  Does anyone know?

[Copenhagen, Friday 11 December 2009] While the countries split wide open on combating climate change, the civil soiceity groups have launched `International Campaign on Climate Refugees’ Rights’ (ICCR) at Copenhagen. The social movement groups from Asia, Africa and Latin/Central America joined hands together to demand the rights of millions of people being displaced by the climate change.

Opening the launching of the campaign, Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, convenor of the ICCR said, “global civil society groups should come forward to build a wider constituency to claim the justice and rights of the climate induced refugees”.

Mr Ahmed also demanded “a legal safeguard protocol should be in place to ensure the political, social, cultural and economic rights of the climate refugees by the international community presently meeting under the Conference of Parties (COP-15) here in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Either come up with a new international law or open the 1951 convention on refugees and give us the rights and respect we deserve!

Dr Ahasan Uddin, one of the authors of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from Bangladesh demanded to review Geneva Convention 1951 on Refugee on the light of climate refugees. He further reiterated to consider even a separate international institutional framework for the climate refugees which will provide complete dignity and respect.

And, don’t forget justice for us victims!

The International Campaign on Climate Refugees’ Rights (ICCR) is a global independent association aiming at asserting and realizing the rights and ensuring justice to the climate induced displaced victims—climate refugees. Civil society groups from Asia, Africa and Latin/Central America consisiting of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Senegal, Uganda, EL Salvador etc, are the members of this campaign while currently the secretariat is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

By the way, they must not have gotten the instructions that they are not supposed to use the phrase “climate refugee”.   The smart people have told them that is a no-no.  Don’t you just love it when the elites can’t control the hoi polloi who have obviously gone rogue.

One answer to the “climate refugee crisis,” stop having babies

Canada’s National Post in an editorial today says population control is the real elephant in the living room and no one is talking about that in Copenhagen.  The Post begins:

The “inconvenient truth” overhanging the UN’s Copenhagen conference is not that the climate is warming or cooling, but that humans are overpopulating the world.

And ends its editorial:

The only fix is if all countries drastically reduce their populations, clean up their messes and impose mandatory conservation measures.

We’ve seen how that works over the last 40 or so years.  Educated people in wealthier countries have fewer children but third worlders crank them out.  Just look at Europe!  Since Islamic doctrine dictates that Muslims must take over the world one day, they especially have very large families and are spilling over the borders from increasingly impoverished Muslim countries.

But, politically correct multiculturalists in Copenhagen are too chicken to open their mouths about Islam.

My message to well-educated westerners—start having babies!  Lots of babies!

Update:  Doing their part, here.

Climate Refugee blogs you should know about

Here are the first two I’ve come across.  These will be located in our ‘climate refugee’ category for your future reference.   Note that they too mention the contentious international legal issue of whether to help the millions of so-called “climate refugees” that they believe will need to be taken care of by the West by amending the 1951 UN convention on refugees or by creating a whole new legal structure.

The first is Toward Recognition here.  And the other one is Climate Refugee Advocacy Forum, here.*

This second blog tipped me off to a possible strategy to bring “climate refugees” to the US in an existing program, TemporaryProtected Status.   How much do you want to bet that there is nothing temporary about this, once in the US with jobs and homes, who is going to throw them out?  Note the Liberians are still here!

A larger problem arises when climate refugees become refugees in the truer sense of the word, when they cross international borders. Important protection measures already exist within the 1951 Refugee Convention, specifically Article 33(1), which prohibits the refoulement of asylum seekers to “the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened” (p. 11). But, again, UNHCR shies from expanding the traditional definition of refugee and leaves the designation up to each receiving state. They offer various examples, including the U.S. Temporary Protected Status mechanism — which was enacted in 1990, but put into use in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch. This mechanism allows nationals of foreign states temporary refugee status so that they can stay within the U.S. if they meet three key criteria: 1) there has been an environmental disaster in the foreign state resulting in a substantial, but temporary, disruption of living conditions; 2) the foreign state is unable to handle adequately the return of its own nationals; and 3) the foreign state has officially requested such a designation.

I can see countries like Bangladesh, Yemen, Somalia and others asking (#3) in a heart beat!  Can’t you?

* As I find more blogs on “climate refugees” I’ll post them here.  Or, readers, if you see some, send the links my way!  Thanks!

EEEEK! More evidence that the climate refugee campaign is on

Update December 7th:  Dire warnings of climate “refugees” opens the show in Copenhagen, here.  And, LOL!, Saudi Arabia is calling for an investigation into “climategate.”  Of course, they have a lot at stake besides the bucks they make from fossil fuels, they might be forced to open their borders to flooded Yemeni Shia Muslims (yuk!).

I assume after seeing my post on climate refugees yesterday the producer of a new documentary film entitled  (what else!),  “Climate Refugees,” has alerted us to plans to show the film (official UN screening no less) on December 14th in Copenhagen.  I guess it’s way too late for Refugees International to put the genie back in the bottle on the use of the word “refugee.”  But, can you blame the leftwing organizers of the latest scare-the-West campaign?   The word ’refugees’ sure beats ‘environmentally displaced persons’ if one has to whip world leaders and other so-called smart people into a frenzy to demand new international laws.  Oh, and lest you are confused these won’t be laws to protect you from the third world hordes, these will be laws about all the stuff you evil Capitalists in the West will be giving the masses.

Open this and be greeted by a film marquee designed to frighten your pants off with this caption.

To the residents of America…

Within the next few years millions of people are going to have to leave their homes because changes in the world’s climate will destroy the basis of their livelihoods.

That’s right, and they will be coming to your town and helping themselves to your frig and probably your daughters too!

I shouldn’t be joking about this because the scariest part of all is that these people might actually succeed in further destroying any national sovereignty left in the world.  Although (LOL!) I challenge them to tell Saudi Arabia to open its borders to those evil Yemenis who will be swarming north out of Yemen as the Arabian Sea rises!

December 7th:  I want to be clear.  I do think hordes of third-worlders will be attempting to get into western countries in a very big way in coming years, but not because of global warming.  Failing Marxist and Muslim governments and high birth rates among those from places like Bangladesh, Yemen and Somalia will be to blame.  The politically correct won’t be able to give that real reason, so they have latched onto global warming so they can continue to blame first world countries.