The Climate Crisis Refugee Era Has Begun

California fires, rising seas: Millions of climate refugees will dwarf Dust Bowl by 2100; An environmental crisis in the early 1900s created 'Dust Bowl refugees.' Today's climate crisis is much bigger and will last for decades, not years.

Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) and NYU Professor Michael Shank, November 4, 2019 (USA Today)

“…[C]limate refugees are people who are now forced to seek refuge from the life-threatening impacts of the climate crisis…Californians are the tip of the spear this fall…[Soon] everyone in America will know what a climate refugee is…[Due to sea-level rise,] as many as 13 million Americans are projected to become climate refugees by the end of this century…This is our new reality: Americans having to move from their homes to avoid the climate crisis and its worst impacts, whether that be sea-level rise, flooding, wildfires, hurricanes or droughts…[Hundreds of thousands of “Dust Bowl refugees were created by an environmental disaster, and what is happening now is] in response to a much bigger environmental crisis and one that will last for decades, not years…

…[T]he Department of Housing and Urban Development has provided $48 million to move an entire community out of the Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana to avoid coming climate impacts. And in Alaska, the village of Newtok recently secured more than $15 million to relocate households to safer ground…[At risk communities are investing billions in adaptive measures but we need a federal long-term, strategic assessment of our national preparedness and an action plan because the] climate crisis is upon us, whether we choose to recognize it or not…” click here for more

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