“The internal displacement monitoring center…have numbers showing an average of 21 million [refugees] per year since 2008 to 2015 directly relating to climate change.
Sea levels rising, cities flooding, hurricanes raging, fires burning, droughts persisting, and – everywhere around the globe – people are being displaced. The era of the climate refugee has begun.
Journalist and author, Todd Miller, tackles this scary new phenomenon known as the climate refugee in his new book entitled, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security.
I recently had the privilege of speaking to Mr. Miller about his latest release in my very first podcast entitled “Trailblaise and Todd Miller talk Climate Refugees.”
During our conversation, Miller and I discuss how a projected one billion refugees are expected to be roaming the earth by 2050, and how homeland security is dumping billions of dollars into border patrol and other surveillance industries in preparation.
Miller, who has been writing about border and migration issues for over a decade, is regarded in many circles as one of the preeminent authorities on the subject. In his first book, Border Patrol Nation, Miller exposes the bloated $20 billion border patrol industrial complex, and how private surveillance and weapons companies profit from refugees and undocumented migrants.
In Storming the Wall we, once again, encounter the department of homeland security and border patrol, helping to enforce a corporate system, aimed at protecting assets over human lives. This time, the powers that be have recognized climate change as the primary threat. But instead of focusing on addressing environmental issues, the government’s primary concern appears to be combating the inevitable refugee fall out.
“Climate change is something to worry about for the future as well as these future projections but it’s also something happening right now, right here, right now,” says Miller, in reference to the staggering refugee projections.
“The internal displacement monitoring center…have numbers showing an average of 21 million [refugees] per year since 2008 to 2015 directly relating to climate change… and then there’s another number, 26 million [refugees] a year, relating to environmental reasons.”
There are many ways to quantify the effects of climate change but, when it comes to human life, Miller looks to the displaced to get an accurate picture of what is going on. And, while he recognizes that some of the projections are just that: projections – Miller seems to have illuminated a phenomenon that, if not addressed, will be impossible to ignore in the coming years.
Watch the full interview here:
Entre Noticias/ Blaise Scemana
