[For an explanation of these 18 posts, see Part 1 published on 3/27/2019.]
Illegal Immigration and Global Warming
Another problem that could greatly increase illegal immigration in the future is global warming. When the concept of global warming was first broached by some climatologists not many years ago, most people shrugged it off as nonsense and simply didn’t believe it was happening. But that is no longer true. There is a huge consensus among the world’s leading scientists that earth’s temperatures increased approximately one degree Fahrenheit in the twentieth century. They say temperatures have increased nearly two degrees since the Industrial Revolution began. That doesn’t seem like much. More alarming is the fact that this rate of increase has been accelerating in recent years.
The big debate has been whether humans have been contributing significantly to this increase in global warming or if it has been caused mostly by natural and cyclical events. A few climatologists do not think human activities are contributing substantially to global warming; but they are a distinct minority. A huge majority of scientists concur that the large amount of carbon emissions that humans release into the earth’s atmosphere contributes significantly to this rise in temperature. And their projections, with the use of computer models, for the increase of global warming in the future are quite alarming.
If global warming continues to increase, and it becomes more certain that humans are causing most of it, how will this affect illegal immigration? In late 2007, former U.S. Army chief of staff Gordon R. Sullivan testified before a U.S. Congressional panel by saying, “Climate change is and will be a significant threat to our national security and in a large sense to life on earth as we know it to be.”[1] Sullivan and many other experts on national defense and security have testified that the impact of drought and other changing climate patterns on food supplies and perhaps water could cause huge destabilizing migrations of people throughout the world.
Perhaps more alarming is the possibility of global warming causing national wars, both civil and those between nations. The U.S. Pentagon commissioned a report on global warming that was produced in 2003. It said abrupt climate change “could potentially destabilize the geo-political environment, leading to skirmishes, battles, and even war due to resource constraints.”
Western Europe depends on needed heat from the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean. It flows from the Gulf of Mexico northeast and passes along the Western European coastline. Gulf Stream temperatures have been increasing in recent years. The Pentagon’s 2003 report suggested that the increased warming of the atmosphere in the Northern Western Hemisphere could continue to increase warming of the Gulf Stream. That would cause the Gulf Stream to slow down and chill northern Europe and eastern North America, substantially reducing their food harvests.[2]
[1] The Arizona Republic, October, 13, 2007.
[2] The Arizona Republic, October, 13, 2007.
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