Plan Ahead For Lots Of Climate Change Refugees

If even the low estimates of the numbers of people who will be displaced by rising ocean waters are correct we will have over 25% of the world's people affected. That is more refugees than have been created in history. 


Some of the climate change refugees will be able to find homes in their own countries. Some of them will not. The rest of the world that is not driven from their homes by rising oceans, will have to take in some of the climate change refugees.


New Zealand has already done this with some Pacific Island people whose whole island already went under the ocean. I met some of these people in New Zealand. 


They are from Tuvalu and their island is under water entirely most of the year. For about two months during the summer, part of their island is above water. 


The New Zealanders took them into their country. New Zealand was the nearest safe body of land for the people from Tuvalu. New Zealand took in all of the Tuvaluans that wanted to move there. 


It was a small island with only a few people, but soon there will be many more people whose homes will be gone, under the ocean. They will need places to live. It is time for the rest of the world to start facing this and planning what they will do. I hope it will be like it was after the Vietnam war and many countries volunteered to take some of the refugees in.


There are 180 Alaskan villages that will be destroyed by rising oceans. Alaska is making plans to help the displaced villagers. I think the plans are inadequate for the number of people who will become climate refugees, but at least some planning is taking place for them. 


The people of the world need to make plans for how they will help the enormous numbers of climate refugees created in the future. 


The uncertainty of the exact numbers that will be affected makes this a bad thing to leave to politicians. It is usually the nature of politicians to delay handling problems and try to pass them on to other politicians who will replace them as they leave office.


Many churches in my area sponsored refugee families after the Vietnam war. They helped them find places to live and jobs. They taught them English and how to fit into American society. 


This may be a way to help take care of climate change refugees too.