The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the
“Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden issued what was widely hailed as a landmark executive order calling for the U.S. government to study and plan for the impact of climate change on migration. And less than a year later, his administration released the first U.S. government assessment of the vast rippling effects of a warming Earth on international security and displacement of people. . . .
“Since then, however, the Biden administration has done little more than study the idea, advocates say. . . .
“Each year, natural disasters force an average of 21.5 million people from their homes around the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And scientists predict migration will grow as the planet gets hotter. Over the next 30 years, 143 million people are likely to be uprooted by rising seas, drought, searing temperatures and other climate catastrophes, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported this year. . . .
“Environmental disasters now displace more people than conflict within their own countries, though no nation in the world offers asylum to climate migrants. . . .
“The report came a year after the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees published legal guidance that opened the door for offering protection to people displaced by the effects of global warming.
“The guidance said climate change should be taken into consideration in certain scenarios when it intersects with violence, though the document stopped short of redefining the 1951 Refugee Convention, which provides legal protection only to people fleeing persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group.
“The U.N. refugee agency acknowledged that temporary protection may be insufficient if a country becomes uninhabitable because of drought or rising seas, and suggested certain climate-displaced people could be eligible for resettlement. . . .
“Migration is part of humanity’s adaptation to climate change and will become one of many tools for survival, so governments need now to plan accordingly, advocates say. . . .
“The U.S. should establish a resettlement category for migrants who do not meet the refugee definition but who are unable to return safely to their homelands due to environmental risks, according to experts. . . .”– After Raising Hope, Biden Still Lacks Climate Migration Plan, Julie Watson, AP News, 10/22/22 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: President Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel once cynically remarked, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste.” He meant that a crisis, or a perceived crisis, can be a useful pretext for advancing political agendas. Immigration advocates are now eyeing climate change as a crisis to justify mass migration to the United States and other developed countries. Climate change, whether man-make or natural, could indeed be a problem. But it is not the crisis that its most vocal proponents claim. Contrary to the hysteria of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) it isn’t going to cause “the world to end” anytime soon.
Also, it is far from certain that climate change has been the primary cause of every drought, heat wave, and hurricane that have befallen the world in recent years—as if these things never happened in the past. Nevertheless, immigration advocates label it all climate change and use it to justify mass migration from an afflicted country. But does this mean that everyone in that country would have a pass to leave, or just those immediately affected? As for the latter, would it be possible to determine which among them really have justification to migrate?
Such distinctions are pretty hard to make, and probably that’s the point. Asylum law states that asylum applicants must demonstrate fear of government persecution. But Immigration advocates consistently try to expand eligibility for asylum beyond this standard. Climate change offers them a great pretext to make the rules for migration more nebulous than ever. The ultimate goal is to erase all restrictions against migration.
A final point to consider is that climate change, to whatever extent it is happening, is a global phenomenon. This means that it will negatively impact the receiving countries as well as the sending countries. This year the western U.S. experienced severe drought. Does anyone really gain when people flee one drought for another? Such questions, of course, will not give immigration advocates any cause to pause. They’ve seized on a crisis, and they are not about to let it go to waste.