Published April 12, 2011
by iris_author
Free screening and discussion of Climate Refugees at 6:30 pm, Friday, April 29, at JJR Macleod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, I King's College Circle, University of Toronto.
Speakers:
-Laura Westra, Ph.D., Ph.D. (Law)
Recent Publications: Globalization, Violence and World Governance (May 2011)
-Alfredo Barahona, Program Coordinator, Migrant and Indigenous Rights, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Member of the World Council of Churches' Global Ecumenical Network on Migration
-Timothy Leduc, York University
Author of: Climate, Culture, Change (January 2011) http://climateculturechange.wordpress.com/
About the film:
“Climate Refugees” is an important and timely documentary film that uncovers the unbelievable plight of people around the world displaced by climatically-induced environmental disasters. The film illuminates -for the first time- the human face of climate change as civilization now finds itself, facing the confluence of overpopulation, lack of resources and a changing climate.
Actor and Sundance Founder, Robert Redford called the film, “an agent for social change.” NY Times
“Climate Refugees” was the centerpiece film at the United Nations’ Climate Summit in Copenhagen last December, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2010, played at dozens of film festivals around the world to rave reviews, multiple awards and an overwhelming audience response.
“Climate Refugees” is a “resounding wake up call for every human being to go green immediately. It is a must see film that puts the human soul in the science of climate change.” Sherri Quinn, National Public Radio
After traveling the world and interviewing several of the 25 million climate refugees now on the run, along with scholars, politicians and the like, “Climate Refugees” brings to light the heart-wrenching truth of what is quickly becoming mankind’s greatest challenge.
The film examines the creation — and migration — of hundreds of millions of climate refugees that will be displaced as a result of climate change. A cautionary tale, the film demonstrates that climate change isn’t a political issue; it’s a geopolitical one, one that literally transcends the concepts of nationhood and ethnicity.
“Climate change is the threat multiplier for overpopulation, over-consumption and lack of natural resources. Our mission is to create a platform that will illuminate the facts about climate refugees, their lack of international protection, our national security issues and solutions to these civilization-altering issues,” writer/director/producer Michael Nash.
“Climate Refugees” was filmed in Bangladesh, Belgium, Chad, China, Denmark, Fiji, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Kenya, Maldives, Poland, Switzerland, Tuvalu, UK and the US.
?Some high-profile figures featured in the film include: Senator John Kerry, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Professor Wangari Maathai, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri (Head of IPCC) and many others.
“With leading researchers and high profile political figures, ‘Climate Refugees’ presents a swell of compelling opinion about the challenges such change puts on the global populations,”Peter Debruge, Variety
For more information please visit us at www.climaterefugees.com
Facebook and Twitter @climaterefugees.com
Posted in: Events | Turning Up the Heat
There’s no better way to make clean energy cheap than to make dirty energy expensive. Global Oil Socialism focuses on keeping oil cheap by taxing the global economy to foot the bill for guns and roses. Nations have no power to change this unfortunate reality. All you need do however, is change yourself.
Yes, sacha, you make a good point – the key to clean energy is changing ourselves. One by one, we can collectively make a huge change in how we do things.
Rodney
Hello and thank you for this article. So-called environmentally induced migration is multi-level problem. According to Essam El-Hinnawi definition form 1985 environmental refugees as those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural or triggered by people) that jeopardised their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life. The fundamental distinction between `environmental migrants` and `environmental refugees` is a standpoint of contemporsry studies in EDPs.
According to Bogumil Terminski it seems reasonable to distinguish the general category of environmental migrants from the more specific (subordinate to it) category of environmentally-induced displaced people.
According to Norman Myers environmental refugees are “people who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their homelands because of drought, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental problems, together with associated problems of population pressures and profound poverty”.