Climate Disaster, Displacement, and Divides: A Podcast with Amali Tower
“Now more than three times as many people are displaced by climate disasters and extreme weather events than conflict or violence.”
First, a special thanks to Brenda Maytorena Lara for her wonderful debut editing job here on this podcast. We are so happy to have Brenda with us this summer!
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Climate Disaster, Displacement, and Divides: A Podcast with Amali Tower
“Now more than three times as many people are displaced by climate disasters and extreme weather events than conflict or violence.”
Climate change and displacement of people are accelerating across the globe. What does this have to do with the U.S.-Mexico borderlands? What can be done? And really, why on earth aren’t there more people talking about it? Please join us for a rich discussion navigating all these questions with Amali Tower, the director and founder of the organization Climate Refugees.
Since 2015, Climate Refugees has done advocacy and research to seek protection for people displaced by climate change. For this reason, Amali has long been considered one of the top, cutting-edge thinkers on accelerating climate displacement and what it means for our globe. Throughout our conversation, Amali demystifies the most pervasive myths surrounding climate displacement, offers a clear analysis of what is happening and what to expect, and what people can possibly do about it.
Some highlights include Amali connecting the dots between climate catastrophe and rich countries militarizing their borders: “And yet the countries that are responsible for the climate crisis—as well as wars and conflicts and the fossil fuels that is underpinning a lot of these conflicts—aren’t necessarily sharing those responsibilities, instead they are putting a lot of money into keeping people out.”
Amali underscores a need to focus on the right to stay home: “We’re talking so much about people migrating, when the conversation I think we need to be having is the right to not have to migrate in equal measure. And how much we are not doing anything to ensure that right.”
And she leaves us with this thought as to how we might reach a better world: “When I’m gone, I would love for us to have elevated the conversation. If that’s one contribution I can have made then OK. So be it. The next generation can hopefully have a better conversation … [a conversation that] holds our governments to a higher ideal.”
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