User:Ahouchin01/sandbox

For our group project, we are going to contribute to the wikipedia article Environmental Migrants.

I would like to contribute information relating to the definition of an environmental migrant/refugee (and how it is different from that of a regular migrant/refugee) which I believe will be addressed in the opening paragraph or so. I also think the term migrant doesn't necessarily envelop the definition of someone who is forced to move from their home (they would stay if the environmental changes weren't causing a lower quality of life) because of the environmental impact. I would also like to explore the effect that it is taking for our country (Alaska) and other countries (small island developing states).

Barth, Brian. "Before It's Too Late." Planning 82.8 (2016): 14-20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Feb. 2017.

Citizens Of Sinking Islands: Early Victims Of Climate Change." Indiana Journal Of Global Legal Studies 23.2 (2016): 819-838. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Feb. 2017.

• 1. Definition and concept
  • Clarify entrance paragraph
• 2. Types
  • (motivated migrants→ slow onset i.e. desertification)
  • (emergency migrants→ sudden onset)
  • (forced migrants→ slow onset i.e. sea level)
• 3. Enumeration
  • 3.1 Asia and the Pacific → Small Island Developing States
  • 3.2 North America→ Alaska
• 4. Political and legal perspectives
  • Perceptions
    • From countries granting Asylum
    • From the perspective of those forced to migrate
• 5. Popular culture

• 6. Documentary films
• 7. See also
• 8. References
  • 8.1Notes
  • 8.2Further reading
    • Add our documents

Above is our proposed outline

Definitely needs editing, need to be certain I'm not plagiarizing.

Environmental migrants are people who are forced to leave their home region due to sudden or long-term changes to their local environment.  These are changes in which their well being or secure livelihood is compromised. Such changes are held to include increased droughts, desertification, sea level rise, and disruption of seasonal weather patterns (i.e. monsoons^[1]). Environmental migrants may choose flee to or migrate to another country, or they may migrate internally within their own country.^[2] The term "environmental migrant" is used somewhat interchangeably with a range of similar terms, such as ecological refugee, environmental refugee or climate refugee,^[3] although the distinction between these terms is contested. There are three types of environmental refugees, “those displaced temporarily due to local disruption such as an avalanche or earthquake;  those who migrate because environmental degradation has undermined their livelihood or poses unacceptable risks to health; and those who resettle because land degradation has resulted in desertification or because of other permanent and untenable changes in their habitat.” Despite problems in formulating a uniform and clear-cut definition of 'environmental migration', such a concept has increased as an issue of concern in the 2000s as policy-makers, environmental and social scientists attempt to conceptualize the potential societal effects of climate change and general environmental degradation. "Unless it is assumed" in order to consider a person an environmental refugee, nature or the environment could be considered the persecutor.

Definition:

Environmental refugees do not meet the preconditions for this definition of a refugee, owing to three reasons. First, not all environmental refugees flee their country of origin; some are just internally displaced. Second, environmental refugees do not leave their place of origin because of fear of persecution, but rather because they can no longer physically live there. Finally, because environmental refugees are not seeking protection against persecution, they do not meet the precondition of being unwilling or unable to seek protection from their country of origin. Since environmental refugees do not meet the requirements of the UNHCR’s definition of a refugee, they do not qualify to receive the help and support offered to officially recognized refugees.

(http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=socssp)

Effects of climate change on America

            Alaska- There have been 178 Alaskan communities threatened by erosion of their land. The annual temperature has steadily increased over the last fifty years, with Alaska seeing it double (compared to the rate seen across the rest of the United States) to the rate of 3.4 degrees, with an alarming 6.3 degrees increase for the winters over the past fifty years. Many of the communities residing in these areas have been living off the land for generations. There is an eminent threat of loss of culture and loss of tribal identity with these communities.

BARTH, BRIAN. "Before It's Too Late." Planning 82.8 (2016): 14-20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

            Louisiana- A Native American tribe residing on the Isle de Jean Charles is facing the effects of climate change. The resettlement of this community of around 100, exists as the first migration of a total community in the state of Louisiana. This state has lost almost 2000 square miles of it’s coast within the last 87 years and now an alarming rate of almost 16 square miles a year is disappearing. In early 2016, a 48-million-dollar grant was the first allocation of federal tax dollars to aid a community suffering from direct impact of climate change. Louisiana has lost land mass comparable to the size of the state of Delaware revealing land mass loss that is at a rate faster than many places in the world. The resettlement plan for the Isle de Jean Charles is at the forefront of responding to climate change without destroying the community that resides within.

Guillot, Craig. "The Resettlement Of Isle De Jean Charles." Planning 82.8 (2016): 21. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Feb. 2017.

Davenport, Coral; Robertson, Campbell. New York Times, Late Edition (East Coast); New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y] 03 May 2016: A.1