Climate expert slams refugee policy

Ben Courtice, Melbourne

Australian climate and refugee policy was condemned by British professor Norman Myers, an expert on global warming issues, in his address to a seminar in Melbourne on the topic of environmental refugees on March 21.

Speaking at a seminar organised by Friends of the Earth and RMIT's Globalism Institute, Myers said that despite a per capita level of greenhouse emissions among the worst on the planet, Australia is not taking a single environmental refugee from the low-lying Pacific islands that are currently becoming uninhabitable.

While 500 million people suffered from shortages of drinking water in 1990, Myers expects that by 2025, 3 billion people will have less water per day than it takes to flush a toilet. Many of these people already drink water that is less healthy than drinking urine.

Myers said it would cost $97 billion to provide immediate water and food security for all people on the planet. This is equal to the amount of money spent globally on armies and armaments in the space of 32 days.

He called for the creation of an official category of environmental refugees, which will distinguish those who leave their land because they have no choice, as distinct from others fleeing conflict, or voluntarily seeking a better life.

From Green Left Weekly, March 29, 2006.

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From GLW issue 662