ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES, FLOODS AND CLIMATE CHANGE.

EDITORIAL: NICOLAS KYNIGOS.
ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISOR. CIVIL RIGHTS PARTY OF CANADA.

January 2011, Australia’s Queensland state is in the grip of massive flooding and monsoon rains, scientists agree a warmer world is predicted causing further droughts and floods on a global scale. The monsoon rains in Queensland, Australia, can be attributed to climate change variability and human impact, high ocean temperatures in the Indian Ocean and the rapid dry El Nino conditions in East Australia are contributing factors for flooding, forest fires, and droughts.

We can now say La Nina floods and El Nino droughts are more frequent in a hotter world. Severe flooding in Bangladesh and India have left millions of people homeless in 2010.
Environmental refugees from climate related droughts and floods are swelling the tide of rural to urban migration across Africa. By 2030, the majority of Africa’s population will live in urban areas, poor urbanite families will be facing the spread of increasing disease, hunger, limited access to fresh drinking water, loss of education, socio-economic deterioration, limited housing and basic living conditions.

African slum dwellers are at increased risk caused by climate change, the right to adequate housing and continuous improvement of living conditions was recognised more than three decades ago by the governments that ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. World leaders at the UN Millennium Summit set a specific target for realising that right, by pledging to achieve a significant improvement in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. However, in Africa which is the world’s fastest urbanising region where climate change has already threatened this goal, causing Africa’s already strained urban cities to under-go additional stress.

Flood hazards are natural phenomena but, increasing human migration into larger cities impact rainfall and soil absorption that cause floods to change direction restricting where water floods can go. Covering city roof tops, roads, pavements and deforestation are obstructing sections of natural water channels.

Increasing economic and industrial development is also a major stress factor on earth’s natural cooling and heating system, warmer climate trends can also affect the way humans live and migrate. Vulnerability of the urban poor throughout Africa already are forced to live in hazardous places, growing their food on flood-plains in small towns and major cities. Some are forced to construct shelters on steep, unstable hillsides, mangrove swamps or tidal flats, already vulnerable to destructive floods, damaging landslides and storm surges.

North America is also facing frequent flooding conditions and not exempt from global climate change. The 1997 Red River Valley floods in southern Manitoba, Canada, had an economic impact of 500 million CDN and 4.5 billion US in North Dakota, Minnesota. We know that earth’s climate is not a static system, but instead a dynamic one, which can change considerably from year to year, decade to decade.

Climate shifts may either slowly or abruptly affect local flood frequency during protracted periods, therefore it is critical for future flood protection and mitigation that we understand the connections between regional climate change and hydrologic systems around the globe. Research on the Mississippi River has demonstrated that small changes in mean temperature and precipitation in the past have caused disproportional increases in the size and frequency of floods. Global Circulation Models suggest, by the middle of the 21st century, the climate of the Northern Great Plains will experience increased inter-annual variability conditions and even more extreme climatic events..