Kelsey Morse Climate Refugees

Outline:
- Introduction
- Brief Background on Climate Change
- Environmental Disasters
- Confluence of issues: adding in overpopulation and food insecurity
- Pacific Islands
- Moving closer to home: Alaska/New Orleans/New Jersey
- Challenging sovereignty/legal implications
- Looking to the Future

Climate change is not only about the planet, it is about people. Not only does the changing world we live in challenge how we should live our lives day to day, but it is physically changing the locations we are able to do so. Climate refugees give a human face to the issue of climate change. This is not is not only about where people will move to, but it challenges the idea of living in a state-centric system. When people are displaced, the whole international system is turned upside-down. The legal system is inadequately prepared to deal with climate refugees. As Navy Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn states, “addressing the changes in the Earth’s climate is not simply about saving polar bears and preserving the beauty of mountain glaciers. Climate change is a threat to our national security”. The world today is not only competing over limited resources, but there is also a limited amount of viable space for people to live. The only way to deal with the issue of climate refugees is preventing it from occurring. That will take leadership as well as planning on how to address the already occurring problem that is climate change. If we do not begin to discuss this issue than a serious question remains: can we reverse the changing climate before it is at the cost of displacing 150 million people around the world?