Climate change and environmental migration : the danger of the status quo
Climate change and environmental migration : the danger of the status quo
Date
2018
Authors
Nosworthy, Andrew W.
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Abstract
Climate change and the environmental migration phenomenon reside in a dangerous
international legal protection gap – a status quo unwilling to change. Climate change and
environmental migration are linked with multiple security threats, including those affecting
national security, public security, communal security and human security, and impact the
political and social order, culture, life and personal integrity. The current international legal
framework of refugeehood and international human rights law is inadequate to respond to
such threats because it is unable to grasp environmental conditions as primary motivators for
migration, particularly in cases of slow-onset changes. Shortsightedly, the reasons for
migration are more often linked with economic justifications, as the effects of the slow
environmental changes are more difficult to distinguish. The purpose of this thesis is to map
the under-researched threats associated with climate change and its linkages to environmental
migration in cases of slow-onset changes, leading to permanent or semi-permanent external
displacement. This connection between migration and climate change is established through
the examination of three different cases, being the Pacific Islands and the rising ocean, the
shrinking of Lake Chad, and the melting glaciers of the Himalayas. Additionally, the security
threats associated with such events are identified and explored with the assertion that
environmental migration and the related, but inadequately equipped, international framework
exacerbate security threats. Finally, possible avenues from which to mitigate these problems
are examined.
Description
Second semester University: Åbo Akademi University
Keywords
climatic changes,
migrations,
environment