When you hear the word “refugee,” you may picture Syrians in massive camps hosted by Jordan or Lebanon. Or maybe you imagine Africans in rafts trying to cross the Mediterranean to Italy. Now we’re starting to hear reports about “climate refugees.” In late April, during a trip to Canada, U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell said, “We can stem the increase in temperature, we can stem some of the effects, perhaps, if we act on climate as we are committed to do through the Paris accords. But the changes are underway and they are very rapid. We will have climate refugees.”
Trudeau Visit Should Spur U.S. Action to Combat Climate Change
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Obama meeting Thursday in the Oval Office and reportedly signing a continental environment and climate-change strategy, the United States should embark on a debate about how to fully meet its Paris pledge, the Partnership for Responsible Growth (PRG) said today.