The Escape from Climate

This is because climate changes are causing more hunger and poverty by limiting the already scarce resources. This lays the foundation for new conflicts, and is the source of why climate change is the greatest challenge of our lifetime.

Climate fugitives

This is complicated even further by the fact that, as a climate fugitive, you are not officially recognized as a fugitive. According to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a fugitive is defined as “A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”, source. This leaves climate fugitives as an exception to the law, and they thereby lose many of the rights that could have granted them protection according to the convention.

Skewed distribution

It is the people who live in the poorest parts of the world that will feel the worst ramifications of the climate changes. Another side of the matter is that the climate changes are already happening in these parts of the world. Each day can be a struggle for a population that is more dependent on locally produced goods and resources than people in the western world. Because of this we have an enormous responsibility, as a part of the industrialised world, to protect the natural resources for those who need them to survive. A specific example here is all the people who live off the resources found in and around the rainforest, and how our consumption of palm oil has a direct impact on the amount of rainforest. Instead of letting the locals harvest their crops like they have done for generations, enormous palm oil plantations are now taking over. These extend over many kilometres that could have been used to grow food, or kept in its original state as rainforest; a home to a myriad of animal and plant life.

Unnecessary awareness?

Awareness around a product like palm oil can at a first glance seem trivial for people in the western world, but for a lot of people it can mean everything in regard to whether or not they will get food that day, and in the days to come. Decisions we make on a daily basis, such as whether we should buy products containing palm oil, can in the long term be a decisive factor in preventing more people from becoming fugitives due to their local grounds being destroyed. It takes such little effort, and therefore anyone interested should take a look at Fremtiden i våre hender’s guide to get a more conscious relationship to food containing palm oil. With awareness around products such as these we can try to prevent even more people from becoming fugitives.