It’s hard to believe that it will be 15 years this summer since Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
Many of us share memories of extended water and power outages, and piles of downed trees and limbs blocking the roads. Katrina initially displaced over a million people across the Gulf Coast region, with over half that number remaining so a month later.
One of the most enduring memories I have is of the National Guard camp that was installed at my workplace to help displaced Mississippians, complete with a large mess tent and indoor sleeping barracks.
This camp eventually hosted units from all over the country, citizen soldiers who left their families and regular jobs to come help us. The work that these men and women did in clearing debris and gutting flooded houses was nothing short of heroic.
Fueled by warming oceans, these types of extreme storms will become more frequent in the coming decades, displacing populations and requiring the services of our emergency personnel like the National Guard.
Because the warmer Gulf waters lead to more atmospheric water vapor in our area, we on the Gulf Coast should also expect more heavy rainfall events, similar to Houston’s Hurricane Harvey in 2017 which displaced more than 30,000 people.
However, these changing weather patterns will vary by region.
For example, the climate in Central America has become increasingly hot and dry, leading to widespread crop failures at the valuable coffee plantations in Guatemala and Honduras.
Coffee plantations had long been the largest rural employer in these countries, but between the continuing droughts and plummeting prices for their crop, experts believe we may have reached the end of coffee production as a sustainable livelihood in Central America.
It’s hard to know how many farmers have been displaced by this agricultural disaster, but from October 2018 to May 2019 alone, over 200,000 Guatemalan migrants were intercepted at our southern border.
Now I’ve never been one to shout “build that wall.” But while thousands of out-of-work farmers cannot be blamed for seeking a chance at supporting their families, these climate refugees have put a significant burden on our border security.
In 2017, nearly 70 million people worldwide had to flee their homes, more than at any other time in history.
It is estimated that a third of these were forced out by extreme weather events; flooding, drought-fueled forest fires, and intensified storms.
And the World Bank has estimated that three regions (Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia) will generate 143 million more climate refugees by 2050.
These population displacements will intensify many humanitarian crises, and famously led former Marine General and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to call climate change a “threat multiplier.”
While dozens of national security leaders have been calling for curbing emissions of greenhouse gases as a way to safeguard American interests, General Mattis has been one of the most prominent voices.
In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2017, he stated that climate change is not just a reality but also a national security issue, due in part to the vulnerability of disaster-refugees to recruitment by terrorist groups.
Our military and intelligence leaders understand the national security risks posed by climate change, as well as the urgent need to respond.
But for those American voters more concerned with border security and illegal immigration, I want to ask you to broaden your scope and look at what brought this surge of refugees to our southern border.
If these voters were to start choosing leaders who are willing to challenge the massive subsidies provided to fossil fuel corporations and campaign on the overarching topic of climate action, they would also see progress on their initial goal of relieving the pressures on our National borders.
Chris Werle is a Lamar County resident who is leader of the Hattiesburg chapter of the Citizens' Climate Lobby. Email him at hattiesburg@citizensclimatelobby.org
