Addressing the United States Climate Crisis and Climate Displacement
A Transition from the “Otherization” of Climate Change to a Focus on Domestic Solutions
In the United States, climate change discourse often focuses on international communities, island nations, and poor global citizens. While the focus on international communities is important, it places the impact of climate change in remote and distant locations. This Note argues that associating climate change with people outside the United States creates an “otherization” of climate change and evades the responsibility to look internally and address domestic climate impact. Addressing climate change is particularly important given that the effects of climate change in the United States often disproportionately harm poor, rural, and immigrant communities, as well as communities of color.
This Note is an intervention in the current academic discourse on climate change. The Note challenges the current focus on global citizens who are or will be displaced due to climate change. I make the proposition that internal U.S.-based displacement warrants as much attention. This Note is not a call to abandon the focus on international citizens who will suffer disproportionately and to focus only on the United States. The purpose of the Note, rather, is to fill a gap currently missing in academia—a gap focused on marginalized communities in the United States who, in many ways, share the same challenges as international communities most impacted by climate change. Drawing from the Principles of Environmental Justice and from the United Nations framework of Internally Displaced People, the Note demonstrates that addressing the domestic climate crisis and domestic climate displacement can be accomplished in a comprehensive and innovative framework.
Ultimately, when communities within the United States receive their share of attention, we will see that climate change is not so distant, and that it is our neighbors, our friends, or maybe even we who will be impacted by the climate crisis that we often associate with island nations and poor global citizens. A focus on the domestic climate crisis will demonstrate that climate change is happening now, and it is affecting communities in the United States directly and indirectly.
Table of Contents Show
Introduction
September 9, 2020 was a day many San Francisco Bay Area residents are unlikely to forget. Waking up to apocalyptic orange skies, ash falling, and the smell of wildfire smoke was more than a wake-up call. Some described this event as a “nuclear winter,” and as the day filled with a hellish color, many people were impacted and displaced by the wildfires taking place in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The impact of these events, particularly wildfires, was most recently experienced by the community of Paradise, California. In 2018, the Camp Fire displaced about fifty thousand people and left a total of eighty-five people dead.
The most recent impacts of climate change in the United States were felt in 2021 with Hurricane Ida and Winter Storm Uri. In Louisiana, Hurricane Ida quickly rose from a category one to a category four hurricane in approximately twenty-four hours
In February 2021, Texas residents faced Winter Storm Uri and, in this case, climate change was also a primary driver.
Although climate change-induced events are taking place within the United States, the movement and displacement of people affected by climate change has often focused solely on international global citizens.
This Note argues that associating climate change with distant and remote locations creates an “otherization” of climate change and evades the responsibility to look internally and address the domestic climate impact. This evasion harms the most vulnerable populations in the United States who are most likely to experience the impacts of climate change: communities of color and poor, rural, and immigrant communities. Climate-induced events are taking place across the globe, as much as they are taking place in the United States. A focus on U.S. communities warrants space in the climate crisis and climate displacement conversation. This Note’s primary purpose is to serve as an intervention in discourse, fill an existing gap in research, and provide a solidified focus on domestic communities affected by climate change. The Note’s secondary purpose is to demonstrate how current U.S. disaster relief and relocation policies available to communities facing climate displacement can be enhanced to address the needs of displaced people in the United States.
While the goal of the Note is to contribute to a U.S.-based, comprehensive view of the climate crisis and climate displacement, it does not stress that there be a halt in the focus given to international global communities. Nor does the Note imply that the focus on the international global crisis is unimportant or irrelevant. The focus and the work covering international communities is undoubtedly important, as it documents that the world’s poor and those living in island states will be disproportionately and unfairly impacted by climate change.
In the United States, scholars and governmental agencies “otherize” climate change via existing policies and in doing so perpetuate harmful racial and class dynamics. This enables the distancing of climate displacement away from the most vulnerable domestic populations. This distancing allows the government to evade its responsibility to address how climate change is displacing communities of color and politically oppressed populations within the United States. Scholars and governmental agencies can use the Principles of Environmental Justice and the United Nations (UN) framework of Internally Displaced People (IDP) as avenues to correct this trend. Doing so will in turn drive equitable and just solutions to the ongoing challenge of U.S. climate displacement. International law is the right framework when addressing the domestic challenge of climate displacement because the IDP framework and its Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (IDP Guiding Principles) present internationally recognized standards that protect and assist displaced people in need of refuge, settlement, and reintegration. Via these international standards, the United States can enhance its current disaster relief policies and address climate displacement. In presenting the UN’s IDP framework, the Note challenges the notion that international law is not influential in domestic settings.
Part I discusses the concept of “otherization” in the context of this Note and recognizes the challenges in the Global South yet examines how a remote focus on the climate crisis and climate displacement leads to a deflection of domestic challenges. Part II addresses the current climate challenges across the United States and presents an overview of the climate displacement taking place in different communities across the country. Part III provides an overview of the current U.S. disaster relief and relocation policies available to communities facing climate displacement and highlights the shortcomings of these policies. Part IV draws from the Principles of Environmental Justice and offers a solution via the UN’s IDP framework to address the climate crisis and climate displacement domestically.
I. Framing the Issue: The Perils of “Otherizing” Climate Change and Climate Displacement
A. “Otherizing” Climate Change Leads to a Deflection of the Domestic Climate Crisis
Before defining “otherization” and its connection to climate change, it is important to contextualize and frame it in its sociological roots. The concept of “otherization” is rooted in the sociological casting of a group.
In sociology, “othering” and dominance are synonymous. A group’s political power and dominance create a social order that allows it to “otherize” and thus assert control over the “minority” or “the other.”
In this Note, I use the concept of “othering” based on its sociological roots, focusing mainly on the dichotomy of “us and them” and on the aspect of differences, the dissimilarities between identities. In the “us and them” dichotomy, “us” is the United States and “them” refers to global citizens experiencing displacement because of the climate crisis. In the aspect of differences, the focus is on the different experiences faced by climate crisis victims, domestically and globally.
American academia rarely discusses “us” in the context of the climate crisis, focusing exclusively on “them,” as if the climate crisis is only affecting poor, island nations abroad.
American exceptionalism in the context of “othering” in climate change and climate displacement presents a division between domestic and international climate challenges. This division perpetuates an exemption for the United States and influences a deflection of the domestic climate crisis. At its core, “American exceptionalism – the idea that the United States’ identity, values, and culture must be protected at all costs”
In addition to academia, the American media also contributes to the “othering” of climate change. A 2020 report concluded that Americans perceive the danger and impact of climate change and the climate crisis differently, depending on the news sources they most watch or listen to.
Studies on American perception of climate change demonstrate the effects of this “othering” of the climate crisis. To be sure, the United States’ public view on climate change has shifted over time. Compared to a decade ago, more Americans are now saying that protecting the environment and dealing with global climate change should be top priorities for the president and Congress.
Moreover, the political divide between Republicans and Democrats distorts the comprehensive understanding of Americans when it comes to climate change. This divide makes it hard to present an all-inclusive analysis or coverage on the climate crisis within the United States. While 90 percent of those who identify as Democrats or independents agree that there needs to be more governmental efforts to reduce the effects of climate change, Republicans are divided along generational, gender, and ideological lines, with only about 65 percent of Republicans believing that the federal government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change, while 26 percent believe the government is doing too much.
Undeniably, Americans are still on different sides when it comes to agreeing on climate change. The media influence and political divide intensify climate crisis “othering.” Despite this difference and despite what Americans perceive as a present or amorphous threat, climate change and the climate crisis are present, happening now, and unraveling across the United States.
B. The Perils of “Otherizing” Climate Change
The evasion of confronting the climate crisis domestically and “otherizing” climate change is deeply problematic. As a preliminary matter, the United States is one of the biggest perpetrators of and contributors to the current climate crisis.
“Otherizing” climate change means America’s most vulnerable populations are left unprotected. Naomi Klein, one of the few authors to address “othering” and the climate crisis, highlights the importance of taking race and class into account when evaluating climate change’s impact.
Indeed, in comparing United States climate displacement to climate displacement in other parts of the world—specifically the Global South—parallels emerge between the two. Climate change, both domestically and abroad, disproportionately affects immigrants, communities of color, and those in poor and rural communities.
The Global South, comprised of “relatively less prosperous nations located primarily in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (including China, India, Brazil and South Africa),”
America’s most marginalized populations are similarly forced to suffer the consequences of climate change. It is clear that “we’ve collectively been ignoring the problem on our own doorstep[,] [and] [i]n yet another blow to American exceptionalism, the climate refugee crisis is here.”
Whether domestically or abroad, communities of color and poor, rural, and immigrant communities tend to be the ones that climate change impacts the most. The UN concluded in a 2009 report that no matter the geographical location, climate change has profound impacts on a wide variety of human rights, including the rights to life, food, health, housing, and safe sanitation.
The “otherization” of climate change is nonsensical when similar communities, both abroad and domestically, face the climate crisis and climate displacement. Characterizing climate change as an issue that affects only distant, foreign locations is almost bizarre when people residing within the United States face the same dire consequences of climate change as those in the Global South. Otherizing the climate crisis does a disservice to both the communities that need the most attention in the United States and those that are suffering most abroad.
When the climate crisis and climate displacement abroad and domestically receive the same levels of attention, it will become obvious that there really isn’t a distinction and that these communities are affected in similar and drastic ways. Yet, if the academic gap continues to broaden and “[m]ost studies of climate-related displacement to date [continue to] highlight[] the needs of the Global South,”
In sum, this Note applies “othering” to the context of climate change and climate displacement to show how such “othering” leads to a deflection of the domestic climate crisis. First, the distinction of “us” versus “them” creates a separation of domestic and international challenges that places climate change in a distant and remote setting. Second, the “othering” of this issue advances an American exceptionalism that is ironic at best and that threatens the very same American way of life we are trying to protect. Third, and perhaps most important, the “othering” and separation of “us” versus “them” is dangerous because it enhances the perception of climate change as a purely international issue. This not only perpetuates an image of refuge-seeking global citizens as “barbarians,” “foreigner[s],” “and enem[ies],”
II. Addressing Climate Change and The Climate Crisis in the United States
Americans already feel the impact and severity of climate change in the United States. The climate crisis is so pressing that over twenty federal agencies have released climate change adaptation plans.
A. A Regional Overview of Climate Change in the United States
An overview of climate change in the United States demonstrates that the climate crisis is occurring here. This crisis and the consequences of climate change are happening now—in our own backyards—and affecting our loved ones. Communities across the country are experiencing climate change in different ways and an array of different climate disasters shape the response and lived experiences of local residents faced with extreme weather events.
To present a comprehensive overview of what climate change looks like across the United States, this Note presents a regional and geographical survey examining the West Coast, East Coast, South, Midwest, Alaska, Hawai’i, and U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands.
1. The West Coast
On the West Coast, and particularly in California, since 2017, an array of wildfires has drastically devastated entire cities, communities, and neighborhoods.
In the West, the diversity in weather patterns makes climate change more challenging. Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center, highlighted that “[j]ust because a place has an extreme rainfall risk doesn’t mean that it also doesn’t have an extreme drought risk, and a sea level rise risk, and a wildfire risk.”
Unfortunately, California is not the only state facing wildfires. Some regions in Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona are more frequently confronting wildfires. In Arizona, for example, ten of the largest wildfires in the state’s history occurred in the last eight years.
2. The East Coast
Climate change and the climate crisis on the East Coast manifest in starkly different ways compared to the West Coast. In states like New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, the climate crisis is a mix of hurricanes and extreme rainfall.
Unlike the increase in wildfires, climate change has not necessarily produced more hurricanes, but the hurricanes that have emerged in the last few years are far more severe.
Climate change alone does not cause hurricanes, of course. Hurricanes are a part of natural disasters and are influenced by weather patterns, but climate change does influence and worsen these storms.
3. The South
Much of the South has similar climate crisis events as those experienced by the East Coast. States like North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and parts of Texas and Georgia face a high risk of hurricanes.
In the South, Hurricanes Katrina, Irma, and Harvey have been the most prominent hurricanes since 2005 and each year, hurricane storms become stronger and more dangerous.
Hurricane Katrina is remembered for its natural disaster impact and for the lack of governmental response for victims in New Orleans.
The climate crisis is present; it is here, but “[f]or years, Americans have avoided confronting these changes in their own backyards.”
4. The Midwest
The climate crisis and extreme weather events in the Midwest are represented by extreme heat and severe water stress.
Unlike the wildfires in the West or the Hurricanes on the East Coast and in the South, the Midwest does not necessarily have extreme climate crisis events that can be seen and measured as they occur. Instead, the progression of climate change and the climate crisis in the Midwest will become more noticeable as crops and agriculture production begin to fall. The Midwest is known for its wide range of food and animal feed. Yet, “yields from major U.S. crops are expected to decline as a consequence of increases in temperatures and possibly changes in water availability, soil erosion, and disease and pest outbreaks” begin to be noticeable.
The Midwest will face a different set of climate crisis issues. For this region of the United States, climate change and the climate crisis will happen slowly and sporadically, but they will happen. The challenge with extreme weather events induced or influenced by climate change is that, apart from already established emergency protocols or evacuation systems, there is really no time to plan or prepare. On the other hand, slow-onset events like those experienced in the Midwest perhaps allow for more time to adapt and plan ahead. Even if there is more time to plan ahead, however, a domestic response to climate change is necessary now because mitigation planning takes time, is expensive to design, and often requires a high level of coordination among local, state, and federal agencies.
5. Alaska, Hawai’i, and U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands
Given their location, island territories such as Alaska, Hawai’i, and U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands face the climate crisis in a variety of ways. Alaska is currently facing ocean acidification, which is likely to intensify with continued carbon dioxide emissions, and “[a]s temperature and precipitation increase across the Alaska landscape, physical and biological changes are also occurring throughout Alaska’s terrestrial ecosystems.”
Hawai’i and U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands are particularly vulnerable and face climate change and the climate crisis “due to their exposure and isolation, small size, low-elevation . . . and concentration of infrastructure and economy along the coasts.”
B. Climate Displacement in the United States
In addition to presenting the bird’s-eye view of climate change in the United States, it is imperative that the current domestic displacement is addressed and accounted for, as it presents a vivid reality for many Americans.
Before addressing climate displacement in the United States, it is important to begin with a common understanding of “displacement.” I use “displacement” to refer to both the temporary and permanent relocation of people affected by the climate crisis. Specifically, I refer to the “in-border” movement of people—those moving from place to place within a state or country. The effects of displacement are addressed later but relate to the financial ability or inability of people to move, relocate, and start new lives. It also relates to a sense of loss that is hard to overcome when considering community connections and community dynamics. As was the case for those in Paradise, California, losing an entire community also means losing a sense of self, culture, and solidarity.
The displacement of people due to the climate crisis is narrowly understood and covered, and a focus on the climate crisis and displacement remains limited. The climate crisis currently experienced in the United States is leading Americans to relocate. In the years ahead, more movement and displacement will continue to occur. Unfortunately, climate displacement across the United States will be influenced by those who have the means, resources, and opportunities to move. Climate displacement in this section will focus on a broad analysis across the United States, not on a region-by-region overview. Current climate displacement
In the United States, internal migration and planned relocation due to climate disasters have already commenced. The Indigenous Quinault and the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw peoples were some of the first who were forced to migrate. In particular, “Alaska Native villages . . . have been among the first communities to experience the acute stresses of rising temperatures with some tribal communities’ appeals for relocation assistance dating back to more than fifteen years.”
Apart from Hurricane Katrina, there is little data in the United States showing how many people have relocated or migrated due solely to the climate crisis. Current displacement due to wildfires is not yet measured in data. Nonetheless, based on the wildfire that engulfed and eventually eradicated Paradise, it is clear that entire cities and towns can disappear, and residents have no choice but to relocate.
The United States, however, does have estimated projections of displacement due to climate-induced events. By the year 2050 and beyond, climate displacement in the United States will be drastically visible.
Climate change will certainly reshape the United States: cities that are impacted the most by climate change will see a decline in population, and cities that will take in climate displaced people will see an influx of new residents. Due to climate influences alone, it is projected that one in twelve people currently located in the Southern half of the United States will begin to move toward California, the Mountain West, or the Northwest by 2065.
The next question is where do people go when they become affected and lose everything they have? Climate displacement conversations are not as expansive in the United States as they are for global citizens. Perhaps a piecemeal approach to examining internal migration and displacement has been done,
III. U.S. Disaster Relief and Relocation Policies
Undoubtedly, climate change threatens every region in the United States. The climate crisis has already caused tremendous damage and destruction. Yet current U.S. disaster relief and relocation policies for people facing climate displacement are inadequate. The existing support system is focused on disaster relief and occurs as “a largely reactive system that historically has only responded after a major weather event has already occurred.”
A. Current U.S. Disaster Relief and Response Programs
The current U.S. federal disaster response system is composed primarily of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Small Business Administration (SBA). As described below, each of these disaster response programs maintains a limited climate crisis and climate displacement approach.
1. FEMA’s Buyout Program
In the United States, disaster relief and emergency assistance is governed by the Stafford Act, and under this Act, FEMA is tasked with the coordination and assistance of emergency disaster relief.
On its face, the buyout program presents itself as a step forward in administering support in the aftermath of climate-related events and in supporting communities affected by flooding, but the bureaucratic timeline and long-winded process to participate successfully in the program is a disincentive to many. For example, “[o]n average, it takes over 5.5 years from the time of the disaster for a FEMA buyout to close.”
Studies suggest that localities with higher average income and education levels are more likely to administer buyouts, likely due to both funding issues and local government capacity to initiate and administer the buyout. Some warn that poor, rural communities without strong governmental infrastructure are particularly vulnerable to the risks associated with remaining in high flood areas.
FEMA’s disaster relief and emergency efforts are limited and contain flaws that are hard to overcome. Although acting before a weather event occurs is a proactive response, FEMA is not the solution to addressing the climate displacement and climate crisis currently experienced by many Americans.
2. HUD’s Mortgage Insurance and Community Grant Program
The support provided by HUD is comprised of a mortgage insurance program and a community grant program. Via the mortgage insurance program, HUD offers mortgage insurance to “protect lenders against the risk of default on mortgages to qualified disaster victims.”
On the other hand, HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) is more focused on victims with limited financial resources.
3. Small Business Administration Program
Perhaps receiving some kind of assistance, even if loans, is better than nothing, but these loans and programs are band-aids to a bleeding wound. If communities receive this kind of assistance on a one-time basis, these programs are neglecting the long-term support that will be needed for victims who may lose it all in climate-related events. A permanent, concrete support system, financial or otherwise, is necessary, whether that means reconstructing these programs, making a new program, or bringing together the current existing disaster relief programs. Not addressing the long-term effects of climate change via disaster relief programs only exacerbates the problem and continues with the idea that climate change is not here, not in the United States, and not in our communities.
B. Relocation Policies: Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Project and Newtok, Alaska
Community relocation efforts are not common in the United States and, for the most part, are available only to communities impacted by sea-level rise. The loss of land and community is one of the most drastic experiences for displaced victims and this loss, in particular, is most present for Native American and Alaskan communities.
Located in Louisiana, members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe have lost over 98 percent of their land due to sea-level rise.
Another relocation effort is taking place in Newtok, Alaska, and residents there had relocation plans before receiving federal assistance. Plans in this community were already underway because residents were “rapidly losing land to a combination of erosion and thawing permafrost.”
The Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Project and the relocation effort in Newtok, Alaska are hopeful projects, but unfortunately, they are inadequate and rare. These projects can serve as models for permanent frameworks, but the challenges they both face need to be sorted out. Most importantly, their one-time funding approach needs to be modified to that of a permanent framework. The current U.S. disaster relief efforts and relocation approaches are not as efficient as they need to be to address the ongoing challenges of communities facing the climate crisis. These approaches focus on narrow solutions and again, act as band-aids to a bleeding wound. Ignoring a long-term approach to climate displacement sidesteps the larger issue and does not allow governmental entities to coordinate and plan for sustainable futures where communities not only receive financial support but also receive a permanent solution to relocation. The shortcomings of these programs can be resolved if a just and international approach is considered.
IV. A Solution in the Principles of Environmental Justice and the UN’s Framework of Internally Displaced People (IDP)
As the climate crisis worsens, displacement will be inevitable. It is anticipated, in part due to climate change, that the projected displacement of people around the world will reach up to two hundred million by 2050.
A. The Principles of Environmental Justice
At the international level, climate-induced displacement and climate disaster is examined via a barriers and opportunities contrast.
In addressing the impact of climate change in the United States, we must consider the intersection between climate (in)justice and climate displacement. It is necessary to do so to comprehensively address the climate crisis at the nexus of equity and justice.
The current and projected climate displacement in the United States did not happen suddenly. In fact, “climate displacement is an extreme manifestation of climate injustice.”
The intersection between climate displacement and climate justice is centered on the Principles of Environmental Justice.
At the center of this integrated approach is the “development of environmentally safe livelihoods,”
In addressing pre-existing injustices and in presenting an equitable climate displacement solution, isolating environmental (in)justice and climate justice from other factors and other policy and economic areas will be a disservice to the Principles of Environmental Justice. Most fundamentally, excluding or ignoring the intersection of other factors and other pre-existing injustices will also leave a fragmented and piecemeal approach as the solution to climate displacement. A path forward is centered on equity and climate justice, seeking to repair or mitigate much of the climate crisis and environmental (in)justice experienced by communities of color and other similarly situated communities. Therefore, a solution focused on equity and guided by the Principles of Environmental Justice is of critical importance and an international law approach can be instrumental in helping to achieve this goal.
B. The UN’s IDP Approach and Exploring the Influence of International Law
In the United States, there is currently no permanent domestic displacement approach or program for communities impacted by the climate crisis, let alone one that could draw from the Principles of Environmental Justice. In most scenarios, people impacted by natural disasters, exacerbated by climate change, either receive one-time funding or temporarily leave their homes and return once “safe.” As the United States addresses climate displacement in the years to come, the UN’s IDP framework can be used and modified as a new or better system is established.
First, as defined by the IDP Guiding Principles, IDPs are:
[P]ersons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.
The definition adopted by the UN includes natural or human-made disasters and the displacement of people due to such disasters includes a “diversity and fluidity of displacement scenarios [that] is unique and notable.”
Although the five mentioned scenarios are established by international law, they can serve to categorize climate displacement in the United States. Often, IDPs located within their country’s borders are waiting on emergency response, governmental support, or temporary or permanent housing. The climate displacement of people in the United States will be influenced by a mix of the five scenarios described by Kälin. The absence of a long-term response system or program for IDPs in the United States triggers a consideration of international law, and thus in this Note, I present the UN’s framework of IDP as a possible solution.
The influence of international law on domestic policies is often dismissed because countries, autonomous in their own political structures, introduce and implement domestic law throughout their own legislative or judicial systems. In the United States, interpreting and understanding international legal commitments leads to a “relationship between international law and the U.S. legal system [that] implicates complex legal dynamics.”
An IDP framework centers people at the core of climate crisis and outlines in thirty principles the needs of internally displaced people.
C. The U.S. Agency for International Development Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons Policy
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has discussed and used the IDP framework in the United States. USAID created the USAID Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons Policy (the U.S. Policy) in 2004 and drew from the IDP Guiding Principles discussed above.
Not focusing on domestically displaced persons points to the ongoing belief in American exceptionalism discussed earlier. United States domestic communities are as impacted as international communities when discussing the climate crisis and climate displacement, but on an ongoing basis, the United States seems to lack the vision to see this. When it finally realizes that these challenges are similar, it might be too late to rectify and mitigate the damage. Climate displacement in the United States will require a coordination of federal, state, and local governments and agencies. Although this Note does not explore what this coordination would entail or under what mechanism it would be established, this Note does recognize that an approach to climate adaptation and climate displacement must be centered on the recognition that equity, climate justice, and environmental (in)justice will play a pivotal role in addressing the movement of people from city to city, county to county, or state to state. The IDP framework is not perfect but does provide a starting point from where an approach to climate displacement can be modeled. The changing infrastructure of cities that will host climate-displaced people will also be a key issue in the near future, and as more people become displaced, a regional approach across the United States might be more efficient and prudent. For now, an IDP framework can help guide how regional approaches are planned and implemented.
Accounting for the different needs and necessities of communities moving across the United States will be essential in planning an approach that upholds the human rights established by the UN’s IDP framework. A solution forward, no matter at what level of coordination, must center people and must account for a network of support in transition, settlement, or resettlement. Moreover, the intersection of different bodies of laws will need to merge and develop new legal remedies or legal rights. Particularly, for “the internally displaced, property law, [I]ndigenous rights, and environmental laws might also apply[,] [and] [t]he number and diversity of relevant laws presents a coordination problem [and] also reveals a crippling compartmentalization of related legal regimes at a time when convergence is peculiarly necessary.”
D. Challenges and Opportunities in an IDP Approach
A critique of applying international law in a domestic setting is that, for the most part, international law is not binding; it does not require that domestic governments follow international law established by entities like the UN. Similarly, a challenge to an IDP approach is that the principles established within this framework “are non-binding norms” that “extend protections” for people moving within their country,
The principles in the IDP framework are also considered non-binding norms. They are considered soft-law instruments and “although the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement do not exclude climate change as a driver of internal displacement, they also do not provide specific provisions to guide domestic decision-making.”
This Note presents an international solution to domestic climate displacement and challenges the notion that international law is not influential in a domestic setting. As an example, the Paris Climate Agreement is arguably also a soft-law framework. It does not legally bind international countries and does not legally regulate the progress of countries in addressing climate change. Countries are allowed to withdraw from the agreement at no legal penalty. This too is a soft-law framework established by an international entity like the UN. However, although a soft-law agreement, it is considered an international agreement that presents substantial opportunity to engage other countries in making a commitment to reducing their domestic impact on climate change. The opportunities and benefits of the agreement outweigh the challenges it presents; that it is considered soft law is not a reason to ignore it.
In a similar fashion, the fact that an IDP framework is considered soft law is not an impediment to adopting it in a domestic setting. The opportunity to ensure that internally displaced people receive the safety, protection, and dignity they deserve is an opportunity to address the way climate displacement will affect people. The benefits of an IDP framework have the potential to carry the Principles of Environmental Justice and the potential to address the long-lasting pre-existing injustices continuously faced by disadvantaged communities. In facing and addressing an issue as daunting as climate change, many solutions must be presented, and in doing so, an international framework makes sense for a global problem like climate change.
Conclusion
Addressing the U.S.-based climate crisis and climate displacement is the next step in the battle against climate change. The “otherization” of the climate crisis and climate displacement prevents a domestic focus and limits the reality that the climate crisis is currently being experienced by many communities across the United States. Climate change in the United States is experienced differently across the country. Some communities are experiencing devastating wildfires; others are facing drastic storms and hurricanes. Many communities are experiencing or will experience extreme heat or sea-level rise. These events are all connected to climate change.
The opportunity to adopt an IDP framework is innovative and more so when guided by climate justice and environmental justice. Ensuring the protection of communities across the United States is fundamental, and if a transition on climate crisis policy is focused on a domestic setting, the opportunity to mitigate and adapt to climate displacement will pay off in the future. This Note is an intervention in discourse. It challenges academia to focus on U.S.-based climate displacement and asks scholars not to abandon the focus on international communities, but to balance their focus and also to give communities in the United States the attention needed to fill a gap and to challenge the idea that climate crisis and climate displacement is happening only in a remote location.
The purpose of this Note is to present the idea that a focus on the U.S.-based climate crisis is crucial, as it demonstrates that climate change, the climate crisis, and climate displacement are happening now. Once we address the climate crisis and climate displacement challenges encountered by many Americans, the void discussed earlier will begin to fill and a concerted effort on domestic solutions will have achieved the “otherization” transition from “us” versus “them.”
- Thomas Fuller, Wildfires Blot Out Sun in the Bay Area, N.Y. Times (Sept. 9, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/us/pictures-photos-california-fires.html [https://perma.cc/RL3L-6NJE]. ↑
- See generally Bruce Lieberman, Wildfires and Climate Change: What’s the Connection?, Yale Climate Connections (July 2, 2019), https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/07/wildfires-and-climate-change-whats-the-connection/ [https://perma.cc/YV5L-3H26] (explaining the chain of cause and effect between the rise in global temperatures, the “rapid melting of spring snowpack,” the consequences of dry soils, and the infestations of “bark beetles and other insects that thrive in warmer temperatures” and their impact on stressed forests); Daisy Dunne, Explainer: How Climate Change Is Affecting Wildfires Around the World, Carbon Brief (July 14, 2020), https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-how-climate-change-is-affecting-wildfires-around-the-world [https://perma.cc/56SQ-JPA6] (describing how wildfires are changing due to climate change and explaining the risk of global warming and its connection to tinderbox conditions in forests). ↑
- Although climate change alone is not the sole cause of extreme weather events, it is a major contributor to the exacerbation of these events. For a distinction between climate change extreme weather events and slow-onset events, see U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Warsaw Int’l Mechanism, Loss and Damage: Online Guide 4 (2020), https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Online_Guide_feb_2020.pdf [https://perma.cc/SG6F-M2V2]. ↑
- Sharon Bernstein, Refugees in Their Own Country as Wildfire Destroys California Towns, Reuters (Oct. 2, 2020), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-wildfires-displacement/refugees-in-their-own-country-as-wildfire-destroys-california-towns-idUSKBN26N1MW [https://perma.cc/S4T6-TD7Z]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- See generally Michael Finch II, Research Shows Where Former Paradise Residents Went After Town Was Wiped Out, Sacramento Bee (Nov. 20, 2019), https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/fires/article237304364.html [https://perma.cc/W28B-FTTF] (summarizing data regarding the displacement of Paradise residents after the deadly fire in 2018 and describing the movement and settlement of Paradise residents across California, neighboring states, and across the country). ↑
- Rebecca Hersher, How Climate Change Is Fueling Hurricanes Like Ida, NPR (Aug. 30, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/08/30/1032442544/how-climate-change-is-fueling-hurricanes-like-ida [https://perma.cc/U8KC-M397]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Giulia Heyward & Sophie Kasakove, The Hurricane Ida Death Toll Rises by 11 in Louisiana, with Many of the Fatalities Linked to Power Outages, N.Y. Times (Sept. 8, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/08/us/climate-change/the-hurricane-ida-death-toll-rises-by-11-in-louisiana-with-many-of-the-fatalities-linked-to-power-outages [https://perma.cc/KK37-R57H]. ↑
- J. David Goodman, Giulia Heyward & Sophie Kasakove, Louisiana’s Governor Tells Evacuees Not to Return Until Infrastructure Is Restored, N.Y. Times (Aug. 31, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/31/us/hurricane-ida-updates#louisianas-governor-tells-evacuees-not-to-return-until-infrastructure-is-restored [https://perma.cc/7S4P-SUHD]. ↑
- Justin Worland, The Texas Power Grid Failure Is a Climate Change Cautionary Tale, TIME (Feb. 18, 2021), https://time.com/5940491/texas-power-outage-climate/ [https://perma.cc/AM8V-EP2Y]. ↑
- Scientists See Link Between Arctic Warming and Texas Cold Snap, Yale Env’t 360 (Sept. 3, 2021), https://e360.yale.edu/digest/scientists-see-link-between-climate-change-and-the-texas-cold-snap [https://perma.cc/3J3G-3E2K]. ↑
- Id.; see also Judah Cohen, Laurie Agel, Matthew Barlow, Chaim I. Garfinkel & Ian White, Linking Arctic Variability and Change with Extreme Winter Weather in the United States, 373 Science 1116, 1121 (2021). ↑
- Chris Stipes, New Report Details Impact of Winter Storm Uri on Texas, U. Houston (Mar. 29, 2021), https://uh.edu/news-events/stories/2021/march-2021/03292021-hobby-winter-storm.php [https://perma.cc/6QQY-4VX6]. ↑
- International climate displacement has received broad coverage. See World Bank, Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration, at xix (2018) (focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, and estimating that about 143 million people will be displaced by 2050 due to climate change). The specific number of climate displaced people is contested and reported differently across multiple reports. See, e.g., Inst. for Econ. & Peace, Global Peace Index 2020: Measuring Peace in a Complex World 73 (2020) (estimating the international displacement of people by 2050 at about 143 million); U.N. Habitat, Cities and Climate Change: Global Report on Human Settlements 2011, at 85 (2011) (anticipating the number of displaced people at 200 million by 2050). ↑
- E.g., Climate Change, Extreme Precipitation, and Flooding: The Latest Science, Union Concerned Scientists (July 2, 2018), https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2018/07/gw-fact-sheet-epif.pdf [https://perma.cc/2L78-JWRH]; Melissa Denchak, Flooding and Climate Change: Everything You Need to Know, Nat. Res. Def. Council (Apr. 10, 2019), https://www.nrdc.org/stories/flooding-and-climate-change-everything-you-need-know [https://perma.cc/A3RP-T9VB]. ↑
- E.g., Lieberman, supra note 2. ↑
- E.g., Climate Change Indicators: Drought, U.S. Env’t Prot. Agency (July 17, 2021), https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-drought [https://perma.cc/W3GP-GD64]; Drought and Climate Change, Ctr. for Climate & Energy Sols. (Jan. 6, 2022), https://www.c2es.org/content/drought-and-climate-change/ [https://perma.cc/8PET-B4TY]. ↑
- Henry Fountain, Climate Change Is Making Hurricanes Stronger, Researchers Find, N.Y. Times (May. 18, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/climate/climate-changes-hurricane-intensity.html [https://perma.cc/QJ7S-Q3Q9]. ↑
- See Rosemary Lyster & Maxine Burkett, Climate-Induced Displacement and Climate Disaster Law: Barriers and Opportunities, in Research Handbook on Climate Disaster Law 97, 97 (Rosemary Lyster & Robert R.M. Verchick eds., 2018). (“[C]limate disasters . . . occur at the intersection of natural climate variability, influenced by climate change, exposure, and vulnerability.”). ↑
- See, e.g., Kirk Johnson & Jose A. Del Real, ‘Paradise Is Gone’: California Fires Devastate Communities, N.Y. Times (Nov. 10, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/us/california-wildfires-paradise-malibu.html [https://perma.cc/ZG3B-HNDL]. ↑
- See generally Climate Change and the Poor: Adapt or Die, Economist (Sept. 11, 2008), https://www.economist.com/international/2008/09/11/adapt-or-die [https://perma.cc/Q3JX-3JMR] (highlighting that between the world’s poor and island states, the population is about one billion, counting one hundred countries). ↑
- See generally Yiannis Gabriel, The Other and Othering – A Short Introduction, Yiannis Gabriel Blog (Sept. 9, 2012). http://www.yiannisgabriel.com/2012/09/the-other-and-othering-short.html [https://perma.cc/64TM-SHH4] (discussing the vilification of the “other” as a means of a superior identity and oversight over a different group). ↑
- Id. ↑
- See Zuleyka Zevallos, What Is Otherness?, Other Sociologist (Oct. 14, 2011). https://othersociologist.com/otherness-resources/ [https://perma.cc/H297-NDJ8]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- john a. powell & Stephen Menendian, The Problem of Othering: Towards Inclusiveness and Belonging, Othering & Belonging, Summer 2016, at 14, 17, http://otheringandbelonging.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/OtheringAndBelonging_Issue1.pdf [https://perma.cc/32N9-THBE]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. at 14. ↑
- Based on search queries on Westlaw and other academic research databases, the most-cited articles on the climate crisis and displacement have an international focus and explore the U.S.-based climate crisis and displacement in only limited ways. ↑
- Carmen G. Gonzalez, Climate Justice and Climate Displacement: Evaluating the Emerging Legal and Policy Responses, 36 Wis. Int’l L.J. 2, 366, 379–80 (2019) (quoting Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Carol Farbotko, Karen E. McNamara, Fanny Thorton & Emilie Chevalier, Being(s) Framed: The Means and Ends of Framing Environmental Migrants, 35 Glob. Env't Change 106, 110 (2015)). ↑
- Judith Koren, The Convergence of U.S. Exceptionalism and Climate Diplomacy, Int’l Pol’y Digest (May 14, 2021), https://intpolicydigest.org/the-convergence-of-u-s-exceptionalism-and-climate-diplomacy/ [https://perma.cc/B2TR-HFP7]. ↑
- Abel Gustafson, Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher & Matthew Goldberg, Yale U., Geo. Mason U. & U. Cin., Climate Change in the Minds of U.S. News Audiences 3 (2020). ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Cary Funk & Brian Kennedy, How Americans See Climate Change and the Environment in 7 Charts, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Apr. 21, 2020) https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/21/how-americans-see-climate-change-and-the-environment-in-7-charts/ [https://perma.cc/SF3S-59QR]. ↑
- Id. Among the Americans who say they see a great deal or some effects, about 79 percent say they see long periods of unusually hot weather; 70 percent say they see “severe weather patterns such as floods or storms.” Id. ↑
- Cary Funk & Meg Hefferon, U.S. Public Views on Climate and Energy, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Nov. 25, 2019) https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/11/25/u-s-public-views-on-climate-and-energy/ [https://perma.cc/WZ45-ECGJ] (reporting that, of Republicans, 52 percent of Millennials and Generation Z, ages eighteen to thirty-eight, say the government is doing too little on climate as compared to 31 percent of Baby Boomers and 41 percent of Generation X). ↑
- See Johannes Friedrich, Mengpin Ge & Andrew Pickens, This Interactive Chart Shows Changes in the World’s Top 10 Emitters, World Res. Inst. (Dec. 10, 2020), https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters [https://perma.cc/8KN4-2KEL]. ↑
- Eileen Claussen & Elliot Diringer, U.S. Exceptionalism and Climate Change (Part I), Globalist (July 19, 2007), https://www.theglobalist.com/u-s-exceptionalism-and-climate-change-part-1/ [https://perma.cc/E2V4-XYVZ]. ↑
- Global Historical Emissions, Climate Watch, https://www.climatewatchdata.org/ghg-emissions?chartType=percentage&end_year=2017&start_year=1990 [https://perma.cc/YRM3-XB86]. ↑
- Friedrich et al., supra note 46 (stating that the world’s top three emitters are China, the European Union, and the United States, and combined they contribute sixteen times the greenhouse gas emissions of the bottom one hundred countries). ↑
- Justin Gillis & Nadja Popovich, The U.S. Is the Biggest Carbon Polluter in History. It Just Walked Away from the Paris Climate Deal., N.Y. Times (June 1, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/01/climate/us-biggest-carbon-polluter-in-history-will-it-walk-away-from-the-paris-climate-deal.html [https://perma.cc/3S69-LC5R]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- See Naomi Klein, Keynote Address at the Othering & Belonging Conference: Imagining a Future Without Sacrifice Zones (Apr. 26, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZhI1F5LxbI [https://perma.cc/SBF3-44JS] (discussing the “otherization” that has taken place between economic systems and climate change and advocating for the systems to be seen not as separate but connected). ↑
- Id. ↑
- Gonzalez, supra note 37, at 366 n.1. ↑
- See generally Ruth Gordon, Climate Change and the Poorest Nations: Further Reflections on Global Inequality, 78 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1559 (2007) (considering climate change “from the vantage point of the poorest nations in the international system”). ↑
- See Norman Myers, Environmental Refugees: A Growing Phenomenon of the 21st Century, 357 Phil. Transactions Royal Soc’y 609, 611 (2002). ↑
- See generally Sumudu Atapattu & Carmen G. Gonzalez, The North-South Divide in International Environmental Law: Framing the Issues, in International Environmental Law and the Global South 1 (Shawkat Alam, Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez & Jona Razzaque eds., 2015) (describing the ways in which climate change is affecting and will affect communities in the Global South and explaining that the economic and political history between the Global South and the Global North contributes to the contestation over environmental priorities and the allocation of responsibility for the current and historical environmental harm). ↑
- Gonzalez, supra note 37, at 372. ↑
- Aysha Imtiaz, The Nation Learning to Embrace Flooding, BBC (Dec. 1, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201201-bangladesh-the-devastating-floods-essential-for-life [https://perma.cc/CQ7V-W76Y]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Hannah Brock, Oxford Rsch. Grp., Climate Change: Drivers of Insecurity and the Global South 4 (2012) (quoting Obayedul Hoque Patwary, Bangladesh Inst. of Peace & Sec. Stud., Climate Change and Conflict: The Case of Bangladesh (2011)), https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/146109/Climate%20Change%20and%20Insecurity%20in%20the%20Global%20South.pdf [https://perma.cc/AC4Z-PGQE]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Imtiaz, supra note 62. ↑
- Nathalie Baptiste, American Exceptionalism Is Another Casualty of our Climate Disasters, Mother Jones (Sept. 17. 2020), https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/09/american-exceptionalism-is-another-casualty-of-our-climate-disasters/ [https://perma.cc/XE62-AXSP]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. In disaster response, low-income communities and communities of color are least likely to be able to safely evacuate, and they suffer disproportionately during disasters and in the aftermath of disaster response. See Greater Impact: How Disasters Affect People of Low Socioeconomic Status, Supplemental Rsch. Bull. (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Serv. Admin., Rockville, Md.), July 2017, at 1, 12–13, https://www.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/dtac/srb-low-ses_2.pdf [https://perma.cc/C2WG-6SBS] (noting that people of low socioeconomic status are less prepared for disasters than others, explaining that people of low socioeconomic status cannot always afford preparedness actions such as making home improvements to increase disaster resilience, and concluding that people of low socioeconomic status are more likely to live in housing that is vulnerable to disasters, putting them at higher risk of not being able to evacuate and remain safe during disasters); see also Sonja Hutson, Study: People of Color and Low-Income Residents Most Vulnerable to Wildfire Impacts, KQED (Nov. 14, 2018), https://www.kqed.org/news/11706264/study-people-of-color-and-low-income-residents-most-vulnerable-to-wildfire-impacts [https://perma.cc/XCC2-Q7V3] (noting that in the case of wildfires, communities suffering economic or social issues are most vulnerable to the impacts of wildfires and are less likely to evacuate because they do not have the means to reliable transportation as opposed to wealthier people who have better access to evacuation routes and cars). ↑
- Baptiste, supra note 67. ↑
- See U.N. High Comm’r for Hum. Rts, Rep. on the Relationship Between Climate Change and Human Rights, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/10/61 (Jan. 15, 2009). ↑
- U.N. Hum. Rts. Off. of the High Comm’r, Human Rights and Climate Change: Key Messages (July 26, 2016), https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/materials/KMClimateChange.pdf [https://perma.cc/4NPA-RL58]. ↑
- Maxine Burkett, Jainey Bavishi & Erin Shew, Climate Displacement, Migration, and Relocation – And the United States, 7 Climate L. 227, 227 (2017). This short, five-page piece was written for a Symposium on Climate Displacement, Migration, and Relocation organized in 2016 by the Obama Administration’s White House Council on Environmental Quality in collaboration with the Hawai’i and Alaska Sea Grant College Programs and the Environmental Law Program of the University of Hawai’i Mānoa. Id. at 228. ↑
- Gonzalez, supra note 37, at 380. ↑
- Press Release, White House, Fact Sheet: Biden Administration Releases Agency Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plans from Across Federal Government, (Oct. 7, 2021), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/07/fact-sheet-biden-administration-releases-agency-climate-adaptation-and-resilience-plans-from-across-federal-government/ [https://perma.cc/QXR8-BS2M]; see also Federal Climate Adaptation Plans, Off. of the Fed. Chief Sustainability Officer https://www.sustainability.gov/adaptation/ [https://perma.cc/TZ5A-KXY4] (listing the federal agencies with adaptation plans, including the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, Agriculture, Homeland Security, Transportation, and Commerce, among others). ↑
- The focus is on both extreme weather events and on slow-onset events. See U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, supra note 3, at 5 (illustrating the distinction between extreme weather events and slow-onset events). ↑
- Stuart A. Thompson & Yaryna Serkez, Opinion, Every Place Has Its Own Climate Risk. What Is It Where You Live?, N.Y. Times (Sept. 18, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/18/opinion/wildfire-hurricane-climate.html [https://perma.cc/5ZGG-BYTD]. ↑
- Holly Yan, The Wildfires in California Just Keep Shattering Records This Year, CNN (Dec. 26, 2017), https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/26/us/2017-california-wildfire-records-trnd/index.html [https://perma.cc/3GAT-8YAF]; Lieberman, supra note 2; Dunne, supra note 2; Johnson & Del Real, supra note 24. ↑
- Matthew D. Hurteau, Trump Has a Point: The Fires Are Worse Because We Managed the Forests Badly., Wash. Post (Sept. 18, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/forest-management-wildfires-climate-change/2020/09/18/f3f1b638-f904-11ea-a275-1a2c2d36e1f1_story.html [https://perma.cc/MJ7A-Z35W] (emphasizing that the U.S. could get away with poor management, until global warming made it impossible). ↑
- Susie Cagle, PG&E: What’s Next for the Utility at the Center of California’s Wildfires, Guardian (Oct. 31, 2019), https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/31/pge-utility-california-wildfires [https://perma.cc/HAT3-FZQ4]. University of Oregon Professor and environmental historian, Steven C. Beda, explained that climate change and forest management have also contributed to the wildfires in the West. See Steven C. Beda, Climate Change and Forest Management Have Fueled Today’s Epic Western Wildfires, Conversation (Sept. 16, 2020), https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-forest-management-have-both-fueled-todays-epic-western-wildfires-146247 [https://perma.cc/5FKM-9KG6]. ↑
- See Lieberman, supra note 2; Dunne, supra note 2; Johnson & Del Real, supra note 24. ↑
- Hurteau, supra note 79. ↑
- Lauren Sommer, To Manage Wildfire, California Looks to What Tribes Have Known All Along, NPR (Aug. 24, 2020), https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/899422710/to-manage-wildfire-california-looks-to-what-tribes-have-known-all-along [https://perma.cc/A243-5VLQ]. ↑
- Lindsay Ross, Colin Gannon & Nik C. Steinberg, Four Twenty Seven, Climate Change and Wildfires: Projecting Future Wildfire Potential 1 (Natalie Ambrosio Preudhomme ed., 2020), http://427mt.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Projecting-Future-Wildfire-Potential_427_8.2020-1.pdf [https://perma.cc/9JDQ-HRCD]. ↑
- Thompson & Serkez, supra note 77. ↑
- See, e.g., id. The interactive map also shows diversity in California and in the West when it comes to weather patterns. Some parts of the West, such as Washington, Oregon, and Northern California show extreme rainfall compared to portions of East Oregon and Central California, where fire danger is increasingly high. ↑
- Matthew Cappucci & Andrew Freedman, Arizona Wildfires Grow as Flames Flicker Throughout Desert Southwest and California, Wash. Post (June 22, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/06/22/arizona-wildfires-grow-flames-flicker-throughout-desert-southwest-california/ [https://perma.cc/G2YB-AZ6P]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Abrahm Lustgarten, The Great Climate Migration: Climate Change Will Force a New American Migration, Propublica (Sept. 15, 2020), https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-change-will-force-a-new-american-migration [https://perma.cc/933J-3HLV]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Ross et al., supra note 84, at 2 (citing Christopher C. French, America on Fire: Climate Change, Wildfires & Insuring Natural Catastrophes, 54 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 817 (2020)). ↑
- See Thompson & Serkez, supra note 77. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Deaths Associated with Hurricane Sandy – October-November 2012, Ctrs. for Disease Control (May 24, 2013), https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6220a1.htm [https://perma.cc/CL3V-G8XN]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Benjamin H. Strauss, Philip M. Orton, Klaus Bittermann, Maya K. Buchanan, Daniel M. Gilford, Robert E. Kopp, Scott Kulp, Chris Massey, Hans de Moel & Sergey Vinogradov, Economic Damages from Hurricane Sandy Attributable to Sea Level Rise Caused by Anthropogenic Climate Change, 12 Nature Commc’ns 1, 1 (2021). ↑
- Fountain, supra note 22. ↑
- Thompson & Serkez, supra note 77. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- See id. ↑
- Lustgarten, supra note 89. ↑
- See Elizabeth Fussell, The Long-Term Recovery of New Orleans’ Population After Hurricane Katrina, 59 Am. Behav. Sci. 1231 (2015). ↑
- Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath, NPR (Aug. 30, 2005). https://www.npr.org/2005/08/30/4824333/hurricane-katrina-the-aftermath [https://perma.cc/8JPH-8HFS]. ↑
- David Leonhardt, Opinion, Irma, and the Rise of Extreme Rain, N.Y. Times (Sept. 12, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/12/opinion/columnists/leonhardt-temperatures-extreme-storms.html [https://perma.cc/85R6-N3BM]. ↑
- Lustgarten, supra note 89. ↑
- Id. ↑
- See Thompson & Serkez, supra note 77. ↑
- See Lustgarten, supra note 89. ↑
- See 2 U.S. Glob. Change Rsch. Program, Fourth National Climate Assessment: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States 949–52 (David Reidmiller, Christopher W. Avery, David R. Easterling, Kenneth E. Kunkel, Kristin Lewis, Thomas K. Maycock, and Brooke C. Stewart eds., 2018), https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/downloads/NCA4_2018_FullReport.pdf [https://perma.cc/XR46-JHZT]. ↑
- Id. at 29. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. at 1188. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. at 1187–88. ↑
- Id. at 1188. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. at 1244. ↑
- See Thompson & Serkez, supra note 77. ↑
- U.S. Glob. Change Rsch. Program, supra note 112, at 1245. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. at 1244. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. at 1245. ↑
- Id. ↑
- As mentioned in the context of Hawaiian residents, when people derive their sense of identity from their island or territorial space, the attachment to community is fractured when the community no longer exists. This in turn impacts people, the culture they once had, and the solidarity they shared with their fellow community members. In the context of climate change, when entire neighborhoods, islands, towns, or communities are gravely impacted by climate change and people are forced to migrate, they lose the physical connection they once had with a particular place. A sense of community is further lost in the displacement of people due to climate-induced events. See Tiffany Straza, Siosinamele Lui & Bronwen Burfitt, Effects of Climate Change on Society, Culture and Gender Relevant to the Pacific Islands, in Pacific Marine Climate Change Report Card: Science Review 201, 203 (2018), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/714525/13_Society_Culture_and_Gender.pdf [https://perma.cc/T39Z-TNY3] (highlighting the effects of cultural loss and damage related to climate change and the significant implications for society, culture, and gender and quoting Dr. Warner, UNU-EHS, who stated, “The things we value most, which are at risk to be lost and damaged due to climate change, we do not exchange on the market place, things such as sovereignty, a sense of community and a collective identity”); see also W. Neil Adger, Jon Barnett, Katrina Brown, Nadine Marshall & Karen O’Brien, Cultural Dimensions of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation, 3 Nature Climate Change 112, 112 (2013) (“[C]limate change threatens cultural dimensions of lives and livelihoods that include the material and lived aspects of culture, identity, community cohesion and sense of place.”). ↑
- Current climate displacement includes both slow-onset and extreme weather events. ↑
- Burkett, Bavishi & Shew, supra note 73, at 230. ↑
- Lawrence A. Palinkas, Global Climate Change, Population Displacement, and Public Health 19 (2020). ↑
- Id. Other Southern states that also received New Orleans residents include Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. Non-Southern states include California and New York. ↑
- See Johnson & Del Real, supra note 24. ↑
- Lustgarten, supra note 89. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- See Qin Fan, Karen Fisher-Vanden & H. Allen Klaiber, Climate Change, Migration, and Regional Economic Impacts in the United States, 5 J. Ass’n Env’t & Res. Economists 643, 667 (2018). ↑
- Lustgarten, supra note 89. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id.; see also U.S. Env’t Prot. Agency, Climate Change and Social Vulnerability in the United States: A Focus on Six Impacts 76–80 (2021), https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-09/climate-vulnerability_september-2021_508.pdf [https://perma.cc/EGE3-L6BV] (highlighting key findings that people of color face disproportionate harm due to climate change in part because communities of color are less able to be prepared for and recover from excessive heat, flooding, and air pollution, which are all influenced by climate change); Kelly Anne Smith, How Communities of Color Are Hurt Most by Climate Change, Forbes (June 7, 2021), https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/communities-of-color-and-climate-change/ [https://perma.cc/GE4M-4DDG] (describing the link between racial wealth inequality and climate change as well as the impact people of color and low-income communities face due to climate change). ↑
- See Fussell, supra note 105 (addressing displacement in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina); see also Matthew E. Hauer, Migration Induced by Sea-Level Rise Could Reshape the US Population Landscape, 7 Nature Climate Change 321, 321–25 (2017). ↑
- Kelly Carson, The Water Is Coming: How Policies for Internally Displaced Persons Can Shape the U.S. Response to Sea Level Rise and the Redistribution of the American Population, 72 Hastings L.J. 1279, 1285 (2021). ↑
- See Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121–5208. ↑
- Carson, supra note 143, at 1285–86. ↑
- Id. at 1286; see also Press Release, Fed. Emergency Mgmt. Agency, For Communities Plagued by Repeated Flooding, Property Acquisition May Be the Answer (May 28, 2014), https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSFEMA/bulletins/baa9e0 [https://perma.cc/JL68-YCX2]. ↑
- Carson, supra note 143, at 1286. ↑
- Id. at 1287. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Mortgage Insurance for Disaster Victims Section 203(H) U.S. Dep’t of Hous. & Urb. Dev., https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/sfh/ins/203h-dft [https://perma.cc/2TPU-NT7B]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program HUD Exch., https://web.archive.org/web/20210416162013/https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/cdbg-dr/. ↑
- Carson, supra note 143, at 1289. ↑
- Id. ↑
- *U.S. Small Bus. Admin., Home and Property Disaster Loans: Program Description, Disaster Assistance (Oct. 27, 2021), https://www.disasterassistance.gov/get-assistance/forms-of-assistance/4477 [https://perma.cc/Q4GW-ERX3]; see also U.S. Small Bus. Admin., Business Disaster Loans: Program Description*, Disaster Assistance (Oct. 27, 2021), https://www.disasterassistance.gov/get-assistance/forms-of-assistance/4479 [https://perma.cc/TR5L-CPXS]. ↑
- Carson, supra note 143, at 1289–90. ↑
- Id. at 1290. ↑
- Id. ↑
- See Michael Isaac Stein, How to Save a Town from Rising Waters, WIRED (Jan. 25, 2018), https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-save-a-town-from-rising-waters/ [https://perma.cc/4ESJ-HQDU]. ↑
- See Jenny Jarvie, On a Sinking Louisiana Island, Many Aren’t Ready to Leave, L.A. Times (Apr. 23, 2019), https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-jean-charles-sinking-louisiana-island-20190423-htmlstory.html [https://perma.cc/SJV5-BE8N]. ↑
- Stein, supra note 159. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Carson, supra note 143, at 1292. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Rachel Waldholz, Newtok to Congress: Thank You for Saving Our Village, Alaska Pub. Media (Mar. 27, 2018), https://www.alaskapublic.org/2018/03/27/newtok-to-congress-thank-you-for-saving-our-village/ [https://perma.cc/97FD-XPKQ]. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Carson, supra note 143, at 1292. ↑
- Id. ↑
- Gonzalez, supra note 37, at 367. ↑
- Lyster & Burkett, supra note 23, at 97–102. ↑
- Id. Language and vocabulary such as “climate refugees,” “climate migrants,” and “climate displaced persons” is used interchangeably by the media, scholars, and political leaders. The lack of consistency and the lack of agreement in finding a common definition prevents international law from adopting a definition that can be used across the board and that can help ensure people receive legal recognition that can bring with it legal protection. ↑
- Id. at 102. Lyster and Burkett discussed in detail the difficult question of scope, referring to the number of people that will be displaced. The authors argued that “[i]t is very difficult to estimate the number of [climate displaced persons] who are currently on the move and how many will move because of climate change in the coming decades.” Id. ↑
- Gonzalez, supra note 37, at 380 (discussing the countries that have taken some climate displaced people). ↑
- Id. at 379, 382, 384 (explaining in detail the shortcomings of each approach). ↑
- Id. at 395. ↑
- Id. at 370. ↑
- Id. at 370–71. Environmental justice is the most widely known term and for the purposes of this Note, (in) is added to contrast the dichotomy between seeking justice, but first having to address the constantly perpetrated injustice. Gonzalez described the environmental justice movement as having emerged in the 1980s in the United States to combat the sitting of polluting industries in low-income communities and communities of color. Gonzalez focused on distributive justice, procedural unfairness, corrective justice, and social injustice to highlight the broad scope of the environmental justice movement. ↑
- Id. at 371 (“At the international level, the climate justice movement developed as a coalition of environmental justice, religious, policy, and advocacy groups, which mobilized during successive Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the UNFCCC.”). ↑
- Id. at 373. ↑
- *First Nat’l People of Color Env’t Leadership Summit, Principles of Environmental Justice, Env’t Just. Network (Oct. 27, 1991), https://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html [https://perma.cc/3ELU-S8F2]. The Principles of Environmental Justice were adopted during the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held on October 24–27, 1991, in Washington DC. Id.* ↑
- Id. ↑
- Maxine Burkett, Behind the Veil: Climate Migration, Regime Shift, and a New Theory of Justice, 53 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 445, 488 (2018). ↑
- Id. ↑
- See Gonzalez, supra note 37, at 371. ↑
- Off. for the Coord. of Humanitarian Affs., Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, at 1, U.N. Doc. OCHA/IDP/2004/01 (2004) (emphasis added), https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/43ce1cff2 [https://perma.cc/D3KV-AZKS]. States as referred to in this definition refers to nation states, not international countries. ↑
- Lyster & Burkett, supra note 23, at 101. ↑
- Walter Kälin, Conceptualizing Climate-Induced Displacement, in Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives 81, 85–86 (Jane McAdam ed., 2010). ↑
- Id.; see also Lyster & Burkett, supra note 23, at 101. ↑
- Stephen P. Mulligan, Cong. Rsch. Serv., RL32528, International Law and Agreements: Their Effect upon U.S. Law 32 (2018), https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32528.pdf [https://perma.cc/HZT4-SCRP]. Mulligan explained that the complex legal dynamics involved between international and domestic U.S. law derive from the different stakeholders involved. For example, Mulligan mentioned that the legislative branch has certain powers to shape and define the United States’ international obligations while the Executive branch also has direct influence on international law due to foreign policy and foreign affairs. Id. ↑
- Off. for the Coord. of Humanitarian Affs., supra note 186. ↑
- Id. at 1. ↑
- See U.S. Agency for Int’l Dev., USAID Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons Policy (2004), https://www.geneseo.edu/~iompress/USAIDidpPolicy.pdf [https://perma.cc/Z97F-9EDU]. ↑
- Carson, supra note 143, at 1298. ↑
- *Burkett, supra* note 183, at 462. ↑
- Id. at 471. ↑
- Id. at 466. ↑
- Id. at 471. ↑
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38PK07294.
Copyright © 2022 Isabel Tahir, J.D., 2022, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. I am grateful to Professor Rachel Stern and my classmates in the Advanced Interdisciplinary Workshop on Law for their guidance and feedback on early drafts of this Note. Many thanks to the editors of the California Law Review for believing in this piece and providing invaluable feedback. Finally, I write with deepest gratitude to my daughter, Ellie, and the agents of change leading the way to ensure a habitable planet is possible now and in the future.
