UK Modeling The Future: Fear To Win Power, Power To Block Consequences Of Climate Breakdown

[hatrack]

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Britain takes in a vanishingly small share of the world’s refugee population: rich countries, which account for nearly two-thirds of the global wealth, only host 26%, and Britain has a far lower rate of asylum claims than France or Germany. What has changed is the mode of arrival: more now arrive by sea, because most safe and legal routes have been eliminated. There may be fewer refugees coming here, but the optics of their arrival has been changed by government design, allowing the Tories to demonise a desperate human tide as an “invasion”.

The damage wreaked by global capitalism we know. But by also sending hundreds of billions of metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, humanity has made a serious error whose most serious consequences are yet to be felt. Those who will suffer the brunt of the climate catastrophe bear least responsibility: the world’s wealthiest 1% were to blame for more than twice as much carbon dioxide emissions as the poorest half between 1990 and 2015. Crudely put, many of the world’s poorest will be forced to flee their homes because of the actions of the world’s richest. The right claims there is a hard border between deserving “refugee” and undeserving “economic migrant”; in truth, it’s far more complicated than that, and the rise of the climate refugee will blur that distinction even further.

The wealthiest countries will respond by whipping up fear and bigotry against the climate refugees, and building ever greater walls to keep them out. A perverse irony is likely: many of the far-right parties who have opposed action to tackle the climate emergency may be the biggest political beneficiaries, stoking fears about those forced to abandon their homes for cynical electoral gain. That many people will be forced to flee because of the climate emergency is beyond doubt. In 2018 alone, around 5 million people were displaced in Africa’s Sahel region – home to 10 nations – and droughts, floods and food insecurity driven by the climate crisis was partly to blame. Deadly heatwaves in the Indian subcontinent last year were found to have been made 30 times more likely because of the climate emergency, while floods in Pakistan – which research suggested were made 50% worse by rising temperatures – destroyed millions of acres of crops and left vast swathes of the country under water.

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Well, the answer is straightforward: people will take the rational decision to flee. Based on current patterns, most will be internally displaced within their own countries, but a significant number will cross borders, mostly for neighbouring countries. Only a small proportion will make their way to the global north: but with far more fleeing their homes, that small proportion will represent far greater absolute numbers. Our rich nations will see the consequences of their own actions hurtling towards their shores, and they will spend vast resources to drive them back.

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/06/rishi-sunak-anti-refugee-climate-crisis-poorer-countries

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. What does the title mean? What do you mean by "Fear to Win Power"?