By now, we can clearly see it’s a fact that climate change is changing a lot of things and, at least for some, that animal fight or flight mechanism is kicking in.
Some of the climate change facts aren’t readily visible, such as disappearing fish stocks or methane plumes in the Arctic. On the other hand, rising sea levels are playing havoc in coastal cities and island nations, where sea level rise is already an apparent threat. If one study’s predictions are to be believed, sea level rise of 1.1 meters, by the year 2100, will wipe out the homes and livelihoods of over 100 million people. Storm surge and coastal flooding will affect hundreds of millions more.
The question is, do we go with “fight” or “flight,” that is, do coastal and island residents choose to spend millions of dollars and countless years fighting a losing battle against the effects of climate change, or do we look for ways to relocate entire populations right now?
Imagine the nations of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, and others, all of whose residents have essentially been “consigned to Davy Jones’ locker.” Just as in a sinking ship, these island nations are taking on water. At what point does wasting millions of dollars to shore up their islands stop making sense, meaning they should just “abandon ship?”
Apparently, some are prepared to fight it out, but it’s a losing battle. The biggest climate change emission generators in the world, namely the United States and China, have failed to take even the most basic of steps to curb emissions. While they may worry about the price of fish, they have plenty of land-mass to congregate on.
Tiny island states, whose emissions barely register, are paying the price, and their meeting places are already under water, quite literally in some cases. Once the fight is over, then it comes time for flight, and what will the rest of the world do with climate change refugees? Better start thinking about this now, before climate change predictions become climate change facts, because the fight is already a losing battle for coastal residents and island nations.
