so far we have been fortunate. The climatic devastation have not hit us with the magnitude that struck last year to U.S., Central Europe, and other countries, in particular to small islands. But this should not be cause for unconcern by the Government, on the other hand, would have to take more responsibility in protecting us from the dangers to which we are exposed. But yes we have been severely hit by climate extremes these past two months. In the North, high intensity storms, flooding, overflowing of rivers, loss of villages. In the Middle waves of heat returned to overcome temperature records achieved in 2017. In Santiago for the first time in history, there were 38.3 ° C. In the extreme south, high temperatures and unusual forest fires.
A few weeks ago surprised us with new statements on the climate of Trump, who faced the tragedy of extreme cold up to – 40 ° C that hit in mid-January to hundreds of thousands of people in several States of the Midwest of the United States, derided tweeting : “What the heck is happening with global warming? Please, again quickly, you need!” The reaction of thousands of American citizens didn’t wait for giving him the worst descalificativos. What he should have known is that he was never seen extreme events caused by climate change, in which a person could die of hypothermia in a few minutes.
That icy air was a very special case. Originated by sudden warming of the atmosphere just above the North Pole due to a stream of hot air from Morocco. This split in pieces to the polar vortex and one of those was the cause of the extreme cold. As it has been, once again, Trump doesn’t understand that climate change is complex, involves uncertainties, causes extremes both cold and heat, more intense and frequent, and that most of its effects are irreversible. He doesn’t know the difference between “climate” and “time”. More is can wait or no wait, the rest of political leaders, businessmen, parliamentarians who support it? Very little.
Because of this mentality, we had minimal progress in the global reduction of CO2 emissions. That is the reality. Worse still, in 2017 and 2018 increased emissions of CO2, which shows that in the majority of countries, there is still no real political will for action urgent, drastic reduction of our emissions such as recommended by the latest report of the IPCC in October 2018. Chile is one of those countries. Still do not give due attention to the high risk of being struck, at any time, by a major climate disaster, and their immediate derivative, the displacement of a large number of climate migrants. Even the number of extreme events of floods and torrential rains in the North, drought in the central area and the forest fires that have affected us much of the territory in the first two months of this year have concerned in all seriousness.
nor the Government seems to understand that the process of climate change is already underway. The greatest danger to which we are exposed as society, is precisely what exemplifies Trump, i.e. that our leaders ignore it or make fun, and finally do not do absolutely anything to stop or mitigate it. If we do not act soon we will lose precious time to stop it in a rational and planned way. That anyone, don’t be fooled only there is a way: lower CO2 emissions as soon as possible. There is no other alternative. The technological disruption will be slow and will have to overcome obstacles more strong and violent, that those who face brake emissions.
The task of the Chilean Government, therefore, is to start soon, hopefully by 2020, to promote by all means at its disposal to a decrease of emissions and, at the same time, prepare the State and citizens to live together, on the one hand with extreme climatic events and, on the other, with “climate refugees”. This new category of migrants still lacks a concrete definition, much less an acceptance, recognition or formal protection in Chile, nor by international law. Bearing in mind that our country will host the next climate summit (COP 25) and that as a representative of our Government will have the responsibility of presiding over the deliberations, not we can escape participate in the negotiations on the migrant climate. The Foreign Ministry should bear in mind that since 2008, each year, an average of 24 million people worldwide have been displaced by climatic disasters.
A major challenge will be climate migrants, which was already discussed during the negotiations of the Paris agreement in 2015, but still not transcends in the centers of political power and public opinion. That hope vanished when we witness that the Governments, among them Chile, mistakenly decided to not give “legal international protection” to climate-induced migrants. An impasse over, another disappointment, in the painful uphill forward a rational climate agenda at national, regional and global levels. In other words, and this we must underline this, we arrived in January of 2019 with a serious humanitarian problem behind us. A heavy backpack.
This indifference could affect us as a country in the near future, since it leaves exposed to vulnerable Chilean populations that have already begun to suffer the extreme climatic effects. For the poorest, the situation is worsening by record heat, wildfires, droughts. They are not projections of what could happen. It is what experienced hard in January and February this year. I.e., it is not something that possibly could happen to them tomorrow. The expansion of the desert, drought, forest fires and the increase of the sea level are forcing currently a good number of Chilean vulnerable families to flee their homes. A report by the World Bank in March 2018 projected that in the three most vulnerable regions, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America, more than 143 million people could be displaced by these impacts here in 2050. We’re talking about true catastrophes.
But not everything is negative. We see trust technologies boom and increased development and application of renewable sources of energy, particularly solar. Improvements in transport with opening to the electro-movilidad. We will undoubtedly deal an important place in the world concert on the theme of renewable energies. It is also very auspicious to verify that young professionals, citizenship and youth in general have started to raise awareness about the negative effects of climate change, they recognize it as an environmental issue very serious, whose effects devastating accompany us for several decades more.
To use this force on awareness, the Chilean Government must take the lead and take prompt action. An important step will be to recognize that migration will be one of the most used, direct and accessible than Chilean populations and neighbouring countries will have to adapt to climate change. Open space to new communities. We are certain that in the future with climate extremes, migrate will be the watchword. There will be no other exhaust. For this reason, the Government, in particular, the Ministry of environment should include from today to climate migration as an important component in the whole of the framework law on climate change in preparation and the measures that will be taken as part of the national program of ‘adapting to climate change’. This is fundamental.
How to support the climate migrants who will be shifted out of the poorest and most vulnerable areas how to counter environmental, social and economic impacts of disasters, using the new labor force of those migrants? We have to prepare ourselves, in order to effectively help to migrants for when the weight of the circumstances compel fellow citizens and neighbors to migrate for climatic reasons. Be alert should be the guideline for future public policy in this area. Will the Chilean Government be able to carry out such task? Timely manner? Difficult to say. But, if we know that our Government is still almost everything to Trump. We know what happened in the last 8 weeks with the storms and floods in the North; the heat wave, extreme drought and fires in the Central area; and the unusual forest fires in the South end. Therefore, it is very difficult to be optimistic. Do not you think?
The content poured into this op-ed is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not reflect necessary sariamente the editorial line nor the counter position.
