Lester Brown: Environmental Refugee

Over nine million Syrians alone have been displaced since 2011! If someone took three people who originate from Syria, chances are, one of them has been displaced from their homes. Millions of people are attempting to escape the horrible terrorist groups located in Syria, and the strain on European countries to house refugees is endless, but, to put less stress on European countries, refugees can go to countries nearby to their home, paid for by European countries. The countless terrorist organizations in Afghanistan causes countless people to seek refuge in other countries, but this takes an enormous political and economic toll on various European countries.

The estimated number of refugees leaving their own country since World War II is one hundred million ("Refugee”). A refugee is a person who has left their country because of fear of their safety due to violence, race, religion, or war. Supporting and solving today’s refugee crisis is especially controversial because of the current events, financing, and security issues. ("Refugee Facts”). Climate change and natural disasters sometimes cause people to leave their homes or countries.

Did you know that around 218 million people die each year from natural disasters? Some people don’t even know that some of the common natural disasters can possibly happen in their very own back yard. These disasters are way more powerful than they may seem; they can tear down houses, wipe out forests, and split the earth's crust in half. I bet you wish there was a way to stop the terrible disasters from killing all of these innocent people but, sadly, you can't. Scientist can predict when some of these disasters will happen, so you can prepare yourself and your home properly for impending disaster.

Environmental Impacts of the California Drought Introduction Over the last several hundred years, many scientists have proven that Climate change, or the other name, “Global Warming” that people think is politically incorrect, is a major problem in our future if we do not act to reverse its effects. One place around the world that has experienced these effects of this world issue is California. California has been in a major drought for several years now, and looks to continue for several years to come if nothing is done to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Also, I think we'll be a magnet for climate refugees or migrants and we'll strain to deal with the numbers of people who may want to come here. Domestically, the effects of sea level rise will be a growing issue, and the costs of adapting could be large, with more frequent floods, and droughts that damage agricultural production. The difference between gross and net is explained by cutting down trees, basically. Our "sinks" of CO2 have decreased as forests have shrunk. Our sources have grown mostly from transport and industry.

Recently, we can read plenty of articles from newspaper warning about the global warming, because pollution gets worse every day. However, there is a huge threat to the world just after pollution but it’s rarely mentioned which is called desertification. According to UNEP, 35% of the world’s land surface is currently at risk and more than 20 million hectares are reduced annually to near or complete uselessness. This is a warning from nature if we don’t have any action to prevent the desertification.

In the last 25 years, natural disasters have affected about 217 million people every year, and about 300 million people in places around the world experience daily violence and political strife. The immediate and longer-term effects of these disruptions on large populations constitute humanitarian crises. In recent decades, public health interventions in the humanitarian response have made gains in the equity and quality of emergency assistance. With these crisis on the rise, emergency management is more important than ever. A natural disaster or an outbreak of war or violence can turn lives upside down in an instant, killing or driving millions of people from their homes and devastating communities.

In Kenya, at this point in time food shortages and hunger gaps are not just occurring at certain times of the year when there is expected less rain fall; instead because of the massive climate changes Kenya is currently experiencing a nationwide drought, affecting multiple regions across the country from Turkana, Rift Valley, and Laikipia to Mandera. 1. The Guardian newspaper issued an article in March 2014 stating that aid workers were “warning of a looming humanitarian crisis in North West Kenya, where a year long drought and the late arrival of the rainy season have left more than 300,000 people in desperate need of food and water”. The article goes on to state how the people of Turkana are “undergoing a lot of starvation” as pastoralists flee with their livestock to neighbouring countries in search of food. Men leave their wives and children at home in order to sustain their livestock which is primarily consumed and used by them for meat and milk. People have even been forced “to eat roots, berries and stray dogs to stay alive”, highlighting the desperation Kenyans are facing.

A global average temperature rise of only 1C could have serious implications. Possible consequences include melting of polar ice caps; an increase in sea level; and increases in precipitation and severe weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, floods, and droughts. Indirect effects include increases in infectious disease, weather-related deaths, and food and water shortages. All these effects put a stress on ecosystems and agriculture, and threaten our planet as a whole. (Colborn, Kwiatkowski, Schiltz, and Bachran.,

Degradation" refers to a change of state with a negative value assessment that is related to subjectively chosen criteria (Perevolotsky and Seligman 1998).human effect on climate change will accelerate loss process, species abundance and distribution were shifted in the last thirty years due to climate change, also climate change can affect the distributional area of each species independently (Thomas et al 2004). Human activity include Industry, forestry, aquaculture, agriculture, fishing, mining, sediment and groundwater extraction, infrastructure development, introducing new species etc (Groom 2006). 60% of earth ecosystems are degraded (Markandya etal 2008). which will surly affect the number of living species and individuals that live in these ecosystems, but on the other hand Species extinction is a natural process (Groombrige 1992).that happened many times in the history, Economic processes in natural resources may increase losses of Biological diversity (Groombrige 1992). Travis 2003 in his research mention that the loss of habitat takes as random formula and there is no specific spatial correlation, but it appears that species with higher rates of colonization can tolerate the greatest degree of habitat

The effect of agricultural runoff in the Chesapeake Bay watershed It is almost impossible to turn on the news without hearing about the turmoil of pollution, and how it is negatively affecting life worldwide. But have you stopped to think about how pollution is directly affecting your daily lives? Water is the heartbeat of all life, and without it nothing could thrive. Odds are, if you live within the northern mid-atlantic you get some or all of your water from the Chesapeake Bay, or one of its watersheds. Years of agricultural runoff from large industrial farms has lead to contamination of the Bay, endangering not only the lives of the wildlife, but also our own.

Complex Problems Assignment In this class, we have explored many of America’s industrially provoked environmental catastrophes, such as the Cuyahoga River fires, the national depletion of bee populations, and the catastrophic death of citizens in Donora, Pennsylvania due to uninhabitable pollution. If we had not achieved the level of economic prosperity derived from our previous era of industrialization, the rehabilitation and conservation of these disaster sites would not be possible. Economic growth has allowed Americans to have the money and resources to focus on the environment and educate citizens on the importance of preserving nature.

Another example, is in the serious informational text, “A Drought For Business: How Water Shortages Will Impact Your Bottom Line”, by Ashtyn Douglas, posted on May 27, 2015, tells from a farmer’s view, how the drought affects farming, but it is really about how the drought affects the citizens, to people worried about the effects of the drought. In the text it says, “ Direct costs to the agriculture industry totaled $1.5 billion in 2014.” In addition, because farmers can’t provide the crops for these businesses they are losing billions of dollars. Sooner or later those companies are going to have to shut down and that will be a huge

Therefore these effects could be substantial. Scientists believe that the destruction of trees is a adding reason to the cause of global warming. Also the IPCC has estimated that if the climate rises 1.5 degrees celsius to 2.5 degrees celsius that 20% to 30% of plants would have high risks of extinction. The same would go for animals if the temperature continue to increase the same percentages of animals could face extinction as well. Now in the last 50 years heat waves, droughts, and flood have all increased.

Finally, the sea level rise and flooding is a big problem people-wise. Flooding causes millions in damage that sometimes cannot be reversed. Flooding is encouraged by climate change because of the increase in moisture trapped in the air, and rain happening earlier in the year and falling on still frozen ground. Houses being destroyed by increased water also leave people homeless and cost a lot to fix. Climate change will cause more natural disasters such as flooding, tornadoes and