Christianity.ca - The Environmental Refugee

The Environmental Refugee Phenomenon
More people are now forced from their homes because of environmental disasters than war.
by Justin Douglass

Growing up in the picturesque Mongolian province of Arkhangai, Chatrabal Choijamts never imagined he would one day live in the country's capital. Like his ancestors before him, he was a nomadic herder with nearly 100 cows, sheep, goats and horses.

Shinedaray, 18, tends to animals at a World Vision youth farm centre located outside Ulan Bator, Mongolia. Staff at the farm teach animal husbandry and vegetable growing skills.
Photos, courtesy Justin Douglass

A couple comfort each other after severe weather wiped out their entire herd in Mongolia

Then four years ago, Choijamts and his wife had to end their family's herding tradition. The last of their livestock had died after a series of droughts and dzuds. A dzud is a Mongolian term for severe environmental conditions, which includes temperatures plunging to 40 below, heavy snow and strong winds that create livestock famine resulting in the mass death of animals.

Choijamts tried his hand at a couple of small businesses but couldn't make ends meet. In search of work, the family of 12 made the trek to Ulan Bator two years ago.

"I saw cattle everywhere frozen solid that were still standing in the fields," says Choijamts. "People were weeping. Without our animals we have no life."

Dzuds aren't new to Mongolian herders. But the dzuds have become far more fierce and frequent in recent years. In fact, Mongolia has experienced more extreme weather patterns, including drought, sand storms and dzuds, overall. Climate experts directly link these occurrences to the fact that the average temperature in Mongolia has climbed almost two degrees Celsius in the last 60 years.

"The clear and increasing damages caused by natural disasters in the country due to global climate change poses a direct threat to the livelihood and health of Mongolia's people," says Pratibha Mehta, United Nations resident coordinator. From 1999 to 2003, Mongolia's government reports that dzuds killed 25 percent of the country's animal herds. As a result, tens of thousands of Mongolian herders, like Choijamts, are being forced to migrate elsewhere.

This migration trend is replicated around the world. Extreme weather conditions, such as dzuds, floods and hurricanes, are creating a new category of migrants known as "environmental refugees." By UN estimates, 25 million already fall under this category. Environmental refugees now outnumber refugees who are fleeing wars or political persecution.

"We have now reached a critical stage in which global warming has already seriously impacted lives and health, and this problem will pose an even greater threat to mankind in coming decades if we fail to act now," warns Dr. Shigeru Omi, World Health Organization regional director for the Western Pacific.

Chatrabal Choijamts (left) had to move his family to Ulan Bator after they lost their herd to extreme weather.

Across the globe, examples abound. In East Africa, torrential rains along the Zambezi River earlier this year left more than 92,000 people homeless. Last year in Bangladesh, severe flooding submerged two-thirds of the country and displaced hundreds of thousands. Nearly 450,000 people were left homeless last year by the worst floods to hit Bolivia in 25 years.

The UN Development Program reports that 98 percent of the 262 million people hit by disasters from 2000 to 2004 came from impoverished countries. The world's poor often occupy areas most at risk from climate change, such as coastlines, flood plains and steep slopes. When you combine this reality with rising sea levels and the growing number and intensity of storms, climate change threatens to create new waves of environment-driven migration in areas already suffering from extreme poverty.

"The issue of equity is crucial. Climate affects us all, but does not affect us all equally," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates at a climate conference in Indonesia last December. "Those who are least able to cope are being hit hardest. Those who have done the least to cause the problem bear the gravest consequences."

Tumun-ultzi, five, plays in the sand near his home in Ulan Bator. Climate change is rapidly expanding the deserts in Mongolia, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of families.

Mongolian green pastures are rapidly turning to desert.

Ki-moon also warns that changing weather and temperature patterns could potentially undo much of the progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (see “UN millennium development goals” at the end of this article). Variations in rainfall and extreme weather events will only place additional strains on poorer countries already facing serious challenges due to food insecurity, indebtedness, HIV and AIDS, environmental degradation and armed conflicts, he says. The target for MDG seven, ensure environmental sustainability, is in jeopardy as climate change negatively impacts the quality and productivity of natural resources and ecosystems, possibly irreversibly.

"It will be far harder for many regions to grow food or raise livestock," says Otto Farkas, World Vision's director of emergency response. "Countering and coping with the effects of climate change will require outside-the-box thinking and a high degree of collaboration between governments, civil society and the private sector. World Vision is actively working with communities, governments, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, as well as corporations to find solutions and help facilitate adaptation to a changing environment."

Meanwhile, cities in developing countries are feeling the stress caused by the influx of environmental refugees. "Many cities are overwhelmed, incapable of handling with any degree of effectiveness the demands of a burgeoning number of people, many of whom take up shelter in flimsy shanties," says Dr. Tony Oliver-Smith, a professor of anthropology in Florida.

This includes Ulan Bator. "When my family got to the city we had no home or food," says Choijamts. He sold everything to pay for his family's move to the capital. When they arrived, World Vision provided them with the materials to build a ger, a traditional Mongolian dwelling made from a circular wooden frame and covered by wool felt. World Vision also offered him skills training, and he has since found odd jobs as a carpenter and repaired cars in town. With this income, he keeps his family fed.

The number of environmental refugees worldwide is only going to increase in coming years. The UN predicts that by 2010 their number could easily double to 50 million. A recent study indicates that Africa faces more devastating droughts and five percent less water by the end of the century. Such water shortages could cause mass migrations. And scientists predict the tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu will be completely submerged in less than 50 years as a result of rising sea levels, leaving the population of 11,000 homeless.

World Vision helped this family build a ger; a traditional dwelling in Mongolia.

Choijamts peers out the small window of his ger in Ulan Bator toward the open plains where his family once thrived. He wonders if he will ever be able to return to pass on a lifetime of experiences as a herder to his children. "What has happened here is a disaster that has no end," he says.

UN Millenium Development Goals

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, world leaders pledged to end poverty, improve health and education and promote equality and environmental balance by 2015. To achieve this common end, eight goals were established for each nation to meet—the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs):

ERADICATE

ACHIEVE

PROMOTE

REDUCE

IMPROVE

COMBAT

ENSURE

TARGET

DEVELOP

Editor's note: This feature is the seventh of an eight-part series on each of the MDGs.

Originally published in Childview, Summer 2008.