How Climate Change Is Growing The New Slavery

Climate change has created a new generation of sex-trafficking victims

Justine Calma, May 2, 2017 (Quartz)

Editor’s note: This is a profound piece that adds a chilling dimension to the global warming debate. Click thru and read it and see the images.

“…[When Super Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, it] displaced more than 4 million people…After the skies cleared, a second humanitarian disaster unfolded…An underground economy took root as women and girls were sold for food and scarce aid supplies, or trafficked into forced labor and sex work…[One girl, Kristine, told Quartz she] was sold to men every night…The men raped her, and took graphic pictures and videos. Kristine was 13…The Philippines is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, which scientists have linked to an increased frequency and severity of extreme-weather events…When families lose their livelihoods and can’t recover between severe weather events, pressure increases on women and children to provide for the family—sometimes at any cost…The Global Slavery Index, an internationally recognized estimate of the prevalence of modern slavery, calculates there to have been about 400,000 trafficked persons in the Philippines in 2016. But the Philippines’ Department of Social Welfare & Development, which provides assistance to trafficking victims in the country, identified only 1,465 victims…” click here for more

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