Climate Change in Central America is a Sign of Problems to Come
The UN predicts that global food security is currently in jeopardy, because of a high rise in global temperatures caused by climate change.
Two million people
Last year, more than 7,200 Central Americans from Honduras, Guatemala and El Savador began migrating, in (people) caravans, towards the US border. 62% of these 7,200 joined the caravans in search for work, with many also emigrating to escape food and nutrition scarcity caused by crop losses.
The link between job loss, job uncertainty and climate change is generally understood as an environmental and political crisis. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that “world food security” is increasingly at risk due to “unprecedented” climate change impact.
In South and Central America, a region that “harbours unique ecosystems and the highest biodiversity in the planet”, the impact of climate change is at a particularly high risk. Many countries in both regions face “severe challenges in coping with climate-related disasters”.
Food Insecurity
The UN reports that: “the combination of moderate and severe levels of food insecurity [irregular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food] brings the estimated total [of people with food insecurity] to 26.4 percent of the world population, amounting to about two billion people.”
Of these 2 billion, 820 million people globally face food scarcity, and are undernourished, according to the UN.
Scientists at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change,Agriculture and Food Security asserted that: “flash floods and landslides due to intense rainfall have affected the entire region, and have been costly both in terms of money and human life.”
The Politics of Climate Change
Climate change politics is an issue of money, class and power, including citizenship rights and nation-state governance.
Scientists argue that people with money and access to transport will have more agency to move away from disaster areas caused by climate change. People without the assets to move may end up in “hazard prone areas where they are more vulnerable and exposed to climate extremes”.
According to researchers at The University of Copenhagen: “heat waves and intense rainfall can have very different impacts on different population groups depending on their vulnerability and exposure, as well as their income and education levels.
“This can result in settlements in hazard prone areas, the creation of unsafe dwellings, slums and scattered districts, poverty, and lack of awareness of risks.
“They will also have to deal with the impacts of disaster on the ground, including no water, food, sanitation or shelter.”
Surviving Climate Change
Wall Street and Silicon Valley billionaires in the US are preparing for an apocalyptic global environmental crisis, by building and buying doomsday bunkers in New Zealand. As climate change continues to damage our environment, the focus is on surviving the coming “global catastrophe”.
22 people died when a gunman opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso Texas on August 3rd 2019.
In his manifesto, the gunman outlined his environmental and political justifications for carrying out the mass shooting.
Our “lifestyle is destroying the environment of our country. The decimation of the environment is creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly overharvesting resources,” he wrote.
Citing ecofascist ideals, the gunman blamed immigrants as the cause of the “massive burden” on the environment. In his manifesto titled, “The Inconvenient Truth” he wrote: “if we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can be more sustainable.”
The gunman who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March 2019, was a self-identified ecofascist. In his manifesto, he demanded: ethnic autonomy for all peoples with a focus on preservation of nature and the natural order.”
The super-wealthy elite will avoid the climate conflict brought about by global environmental degradation. Alternatively, working-class and middle-class white gunmen believe that population control – through racial genocide – is the answer to climate change. For them, global resource protection should only be offered to those with the greatest socio-economic and political power.
In South and Central America, many believe that emigration to nations with the greatest socio-economic and political power will protect them from food scarcity and economic insecurity, caused by climate change.
Solving Climate Change
17.2 million people left their home last year, because of climate change induced disasters, such as ocean acidification, desertification and coastal erosion.
The UN believes that climate-related global migration patterns will continue to accelerate as a result of “adverse climate impacts”.
For the UN, climate change is a complex problem with many viable solutions, such as international environmentalism, humanitarianism and climate policy.
