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Climate change is making Central America hotter and drier, and intensifying its floods and tropical storms.Magrin, G.O., J.A. Marengo, J.-P. Boulanger, M.S. Buckeridge, E. Castellanos, G. Poveda, F.R. Scarano, and S. Vicuña. (2014). Central and South America. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5-Chap27_FINAL.pdf Since 2014, a series of droughts have wrecked the region’s harvest, forcing almost one-third of its people into food insecurity.Sigelmann, L. (2019). (Rep.). The Hidden Driver: Climate Change and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle. American Security Project. https://www.americansecurityproject.org/perspective-climate-change-and-migration-in-central-americas-northern-triangle/; Mbow, C., C. Rosenzweig, L.G. Barioni, T.G. Benton, M. Herrero, M. Krishnapillai, E. Liwenga, P. Pradhan, M.G. Rivera-Ferre, T. Sapkota, F.N. Tubiello, Y. Xu. (2019) Food Security. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/ In Honduras, the changing climate likely contributed to the 2018 drought that wiped out over 80% of maize and bean crops.Mbow, C., C. Rosenzweig, L.G. Barioni, T.G. Benton, M. Herrero, M. Krishnapillai, E. Liwenga, P. Pradhan, M.G. Rivera-Ferre, T. Sapkota, F.N. Tubiello, Y. Xu. (2019) Food Security. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/; Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. (2018). FAO and WFP concerned about the impact of drought on the most vulnerable in Central America. http://www.fao.org/americas/noticias/ver/en/c/1150344/; Moloney, A. (2019, September 27). In Honduras, years of drought pressure farmers to leave land. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-honduras-migrants-anal/in-honduras-years-of-drought-pressure-farmers-to-leave-land-idUSKBN1WC0M6 Failing harvests and increasingly destructive weather events have exacerbated migration in this region by escalating hunger, poverty, and violence.World Food Programme. (2017). Food security and emigration: Why people flee and the impact on family members left behind in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000022124/download/?_ga=2.85460124.46423775.1540402016-1767178983.1540402016; Sigelmann, L. (2019). (Rep.). The Hidden Driver: Climate Change and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle. American Security Project. https://www.americansecurityproject.org/perspective-climate-change-and-migration-in-central-americas-northern-triangle/
The U.S. has seen a 25,000% yearly increase in the number of families seeking asylum from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, from fewer than 2000 in 2012 to nearly 375,000 in 2019.Sigelmann, L. (2019). (Rep.). The Hidden Driver: Climate Change and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle. American Security Project. https://www.americansecurityproject.org/perspective-climate-change-and-migration-in-central-americas-northern-triangle/ 80% of the migrants that reached the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019 were families and unaccompanied children from these three countries.Sigelmann, L. (2019). (Rep.). The Hidden Driver: Climate Change and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle. American Security Project. https://www.americansecurityproject.org/perspective-climate-change-and-migration-in-central-americas-northern-triangle/
The mass migration of thousands of Central Americans in 2018 and 2019 became popularly known as the “migrant caravan”. It soon took center stage in a scorching nation-wide debate on U.S. immigration policies and national security, which fanned across college campuses, social media, and congressional races.UN International Organization for Migration. (2019). World migration report:2020. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/wmr_2020.pdf; Gomez, A. (2018, October 29). Far from U.S.-Mexico border, immigration debate dominates many 2018 House races. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/10/29/immigration-2018-elections-house-congress-border-wall-mexico-trump-democrats-republicans-daca/1737422002/; Schumer, E. R. & Zhang R. (2018, November 30). Harvard professors decry Trump Administration approach to asylum policy, migrant caravans. Harvard Crimson. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/11/30/law-school-migrant-caravan-panel/; Watkins, E. (2018, June 18). These Republicans have criticized Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy. CNN Politics. https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/republican-party-family-separation/index.html; The Texas Tribune. (n.d.). Families divided. TexasTribune.org. https://www.texastribune.org/series/separated-immigrant-families-zero-tolerance/
The dialogue was heated, and climate change, including its impacts on migration, received broad media coverage. Many of these articles featured extensive interviews, images and personal stories from the migrants themselves. Young sisters Jerlin and Yeni, and farmers Ruben and Jorge, are among those who chose to share their journeys and their experiences with hunger, coyotes, and forced separation from family members. In doing so, they became representatives of thousands of Central Americans who fled inhospitable conditions in their home countries in recent years.UN International Organization for Migration. (2019). World migration report:2020. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/wmr_2020.pdf; Lustgarten, A. (2020, June 23). The great climate migration. The New York Times Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/climate-migration.html; Aguirre, J. C. (2020, August 28). In Central America, Climate Change Is Driving Families North. Sierra Magazine. https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2020-5-september-october/feature/in-central-america-guatemala-climate-change-driving-families-north-climate-migration; Gustin, G. & Henniger, M. (2019, July 9). Central America’s choice: Pray for rain or migrate. Inside Climate News & NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/central-america-drying-farmers-face-choice-pray-rain-or-leave-n1027346
Americans increasingly want to understand the impacts of climate change at home and abroad. According to YPCCC’s 2020 study on Americans’ interest in climate news, almost 8 in 10 Americans are interested in new stories about the impacts of global warming around the world. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. (2020). Americans’ interest in climate news 2020. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/climatenews2020/ A similar proportion are interested in news stories about the U.S. government’s response to these impacts.
However, reporting personal stories illustrating the impacts of climate change bears importance beyond feeding reader interest or even good journalism practice. Personal stories give a human face to one of the most tangible consequences of unmitigated climate change that we face today.
The most compelling personal stories educate with humanity and compel compassion without pity. They often accomplish this in three ways: they communicate the urgency of the conditions that drive migration, impart the necessity of leaving dangerous environments, and expose the failings of the immigration system that awaits migrants at the end of their journey.
According to YPCCC’s 2020 study on personal stories, when people hear of others’ personal experiences about the impacts of climate change, they experience feelings of worry and compassion.Gustafson, A., Ballew, M., Goldberg, M., Rosenthal, S., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Personal stories can shift climate change beliefs and risk perceptions: The mediating role of emotion. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. The study suggests that activating these feelings can persuade even climate skeptics that climate change is impacting people and ecosystems right now.
And right now is a critical moment for climate action.
According to the IPCC, the world has ten years to take the steps necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.). (2018). Summary for Policymakers. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/
With the election of a new presidential administration, the U.S. has the opportunity to make substantive contributions to climate change mitigation. It also has the chance to design new foreign and immigration policies equipped to address the geopolitical instability and disruptions to traditional patterns of migration wrought by climate change.
The Trump Administration removed climate change from its list of national security priorities. It also slashed funding to Central America for climate change adaptation and agricultural training.Gustin, G. & Henniger, M. (2019, July 9). Central America’s choice: Pray for rain or migrate. Inside Climate News & NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/central-america-drying-farmers-face-choice-pray-rain-or-leave-n1027346; Sigelmann, L. (2019). (Rep.). The Hidden Driver: Climate Change and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle. American Security Project. https://www.americansecurityproject.org/perspective-climate-change-and-migration-in-central-americas-northern-triangle/; Miroff, N. (2019, October 16). President Trump says he will unfreeze security aid to Central American countries. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/president-trump-says-he-will-unfreeze-security-aid-to-central-american-countries/2019/10/16/69438a94-ef7c-11e9-b648-76bcf86eb67e_story.html Still, the Administration’s most pernicious impact on migration was devising a set of immigration policies that treated migrants themselves as threats to national security.UN International Organization for Migration. (2019). World migration report:2020. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/wmr_2020.pdf; Sigelmann, L. (2019). (Rep.). The Hidden Driver: Climate Change and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle. American Security Project. https://www.americansecurityproject.org/perspective-climate-change-and-migration-in-central-americas-northern-triangle/ These “zero-tolerance” policies, including the forced separation of parents and children, had devastating consequences for migrant families.UN International Organization for Migration. (2019). World migration report:2020. https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/wmr_2020.pdf; Sigelmann, L. (2019). (Rep.). The Hidden Driver: Climate Change and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle. American Security Project. https://www.americansecurityproject.org/perspective-climate-change-and-migration-in-central-americas-northern-triangle/; Dickerson, C. (2020, October 21). Parents of 545 children separated at the border cannot be found. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/us/migrant-children-separated.html Moreover, they failed to address the root causes of climate migration.
By contrast, climate change is among the top priorities of the new presidential administration. The appointment of former Secretary of State John Kerry as the first U.S. Climate Envoy signals that the next administration intends to treat climate change not just as a stand-alone environmental issue, but one important to foreign policy and national security.Bidgood, J. (2020, November 24). Biden links climate change to national security as he taps John Kerry for climate czar role. The Boston Globe. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/23/nation/john-kerry-join-biden-administration-national-security-council-official-dedicated-climate-change/
Biden has also pledged to uphold the U.S.’s $3 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund.Biden for President. (n.d.). The Biden plan for a clean energy revolution and environmental justice. Biden for President. https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/# This global funding mechanism is one of the few equipped to mitigate the impacts of climate change that displace people in developing countries.Green Climate Fund. (n.d.). Green Climate Fund. https://www.greenclimate.fund But if the new administration is to convince the American public of the value of sending money overseas, it must first convince Americans that climate change is here and that its victims are families like them.
The country needs policies that can address our national security interests while treating climate migrants with the same care awarded to asylum seekers and other victims of environmental disaster. It’s critical that journalists and climate communicators continue to elevate personal stories from climate migrants- not only to convince Americans of the need for immediate action- but to help build compassion for migrants, some of the world’s most vulnerable victims of climate change.