Your problems are ours too.
Posted at 9:00 am
We should keep this in mind as we learn that 3.5 billion people today live in an environment that is “highly vulnerable to climate change”.
The information comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on Monday. This document represents (another) urgent call for action. From technology to money to community support, it shows that we have all the cards in our hands to limit the most severe impacts of climate change. But the window of opportunity for action is getting dangerously narrow.
Quebecers and Canadians may (falsely) be relieved to know that among the billions of people most vulnerable to climate change, most are found in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
That would be a bad reflex for three reasons.
First of all, there is an elementary question of solidarity. Today, those who have contributed least to climate change are hit hardest by its consequences. This injustice should make us responsible and propel us to action.
The second reason is that it would be wrong to think that we are safe. The consequences of the climate emergency are also being felt at home. Speak to the residents of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine as they watch their land crumble at sea, or to the communities of the north as they wade through thawing permafrost.
The IPCC also warns us that it has only just begun.
The third reason is that a recent event has made us aware that we can no longer live as if we were isolated on an island from the major problems shaking the world.
This event is the massive arrival of migrants via Roxham Road.
Roxham showed us that the misery of the world can be driven back to our doorstep. He made it very clear to us that everything is connected and that we are all literally in the same boat.
PHOTO CHRISTINNE MUSCHI, Portal ARCHIVE
Migrants arriving via Roxham Road are a stark reminder of the impact of the climate emergency.
Anyone who still believes that it is possible to erect watertight barriers against migration movements is on the wrong track.
Despite all means (and desperate attempts like the absurd wall devised by Donald Trump), the United States has never been able to stem the flow of migrants crossing its 3,000-kilometer border with Mexico. To think that Canada can secure a border three times longer with a population ten times smaller is unrealistic.
The climate migrations announced by the IPCC therefore affect us directly and we have a responsibility to address their causes.
These migrations have already begun.
Of the migrants crossing through Roxham, it is difficult to determine the proportion of those who are directly or indirectly fleeing their country because of the climate catastrophe. But in a report titled “The Great Climate Migration,” The New York Times Magazine showed that many of them are doing so.1
It documents the case of peasant families in Central America who, in the face of drought and flooding, flee first to their country’s cities and then north via Mexico and Texas.
We now know that such routes can lead to Roxham. In short, a drought in Guatemala could prompt a panel in Montreal North to call for help.
Climate change has already impacted access to water and food for millions of people. Every tenth of a degree added to the warming already observed will draw millions to join them.
We must not only help these people adapt to climate change, but also help counteract its causes by taking our reduction targets seriously.
It’s not just a duty. It is in our own interest.