Past, Present and the Future
What Climate Change Has In Common With The Depression
I recently had a conversation with an acquaintance who said he was fascinated by the Depression era, because the line between succeeding and failing was so thin that one jolt could destroy a family’s entire existence. One bad crop could lose the farm, one plunging stock could result in bankruptcy.
We discussed the similarity between the Dust Bowl, where soil-eroding agricultural practices coupled with drought resulted in the mass migration of former farmers to California, with today’s climate crisis.
When you hear about hundreds of thousands of migrants streaming through Central America toward the United States border, what do you think they are fleeing? Violence, corrupt governments, unstable economies? Yes, but the underlying cause for many of those problems is a drought that began in 2016.
Per the Center for Climate and Security:
“The ongoing food security crisis across the region (caused by drought, crop disease, and water shortages) deserves special examination, not only because it might be a leading causal factor for the crisis, but also because it is undoubtedly one of its catalysts. As such, any U.S. policy prescriptions that do not help to address the catastrophic impacts of environmental changes on Central American agriculture, will fail to achieve their objectives.”
The Syrian Civil War that unleashed a flood of migrants across Europe was in part caused by a three-year drought. When people become desperate, they begin to look for answers in alternative governments, and fighting over resources like food and water triggers violence.
The head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, has warned that climate change will cause not only increased migration but also it will increase the disparity between the rich and the poor, those with the means to survive climate disasters and those without.
Drought is not the only migration-causing event. When Hurricane Dorian recently hit the Bahamas, it left more than 75,000 residents homeless, according to the Wall Street Journal, many of whom evacuated to other parts of the Bahamas and to the United States.
Americans who can afford to are already vacating frequently flooded areas in favor of drier land. One study from the University of Georgia predicts that “unmitigated sea level rise is expected to reshape the US population distribution, potentially stressing landlocked areas unprepared to accommodate this wave of coastal migrants.”
In his book “The Uninhabitable Earth,” David Wallace Wells posits that India and the United States will be the hardest hit by climate change. He writes:
“Most people talk as if Miami and Bangladesh still have a chance of surviving; most of the scientists I spoke with assume we’ll lose them within the century, even if we stop burning fossil fuel in the next decade.”
Ironically, rising temperatures cause both a lack of water in some places and an excess of water in others. Extreme heat will make some countries, like India, uninhabitable, and rising sea levels, floods and hurricanes will impact others, like the United States.
As my acquaintance pointed out in our discussion, we all — internationally — have to band together if we are going to have any success at curtailing rising temperatures. This week’s Climate Action Summit is a good step in that direction.
I think this is one of those circumstances where the adage “Think Globally, Act Locally” is appropriate. Encourage your town to explore energy alternatives, like solar panels and wind power. A few coastal communities near me are powering their entire town with a strategically-placed windmill. Another town has a solar farm that powers the municipal government.
On a more personal level, a plant-based diet is not only better for your health, it’s better for the climate. Obviously, conservation of resources such as water, electricity and oil will help preserve the environment.
And honestly, learn to live with less. It sounds like we’ll all be squeezing onto far less land in the future, with far fewer resources.
