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October 2024: climate migration

Each month, we break down our topic into four weekly modules. Catch up on previous editions here.​

This week's module: READ

• 🎯 READ | What's a climate refugee? (TODAY)
• WATCH | Stories of resilience (10/9/24)
• ACT | Actions you can take to build a resilient future (10/16/24)
• REFLECT | A poem & an opportunity to share your commitment (10/23/24)

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes for the action plan (plus some more because I've included disaster action resources)

Here's what we'll learn today Reader

If you are looking for Hurricane Helene + Nepal donation suggestions, scroll to the end ✅

Hi Reader

I really really do not want to write today's Changeletter. I actually put it off so much that it's 8:18 PST on Wednesday and I am on a plane (I know, boo, plane travel) and I had to pay for the $8 plane wifi. Anyway.

Earlier this year, our team already decided that October's topic would be climate migration. However, I didn't plan for it to overlap with flooding creating havoc in Nepal, hurricanes decimating North Carolina, and US-sponsored Israeli armies bombing people in Lebanon and Palestine.

But alas, we're here and I take comfort that we're here together.

Soapbox Project's core values are courage & joy. Today's Changeletter is around having the courage to weather the grief we're seeing in the world. It's not going to be a fun read, but it will reiterate once again that these "tragedies" are not inevitable.

Today's READ module is about climate migration: what is it? what's the scale of the problem? At the bottom, I'll include some links to relief efforts around the world that you can donate to.

In this READ module, we'll face the facts; in the coming weeks, we'll include some hope and action and poetry to make our way through.

✨ Some wins that showcase our community power ✨

• Our NYC event TOMORROW is almost sold out. Grab the last ticket to find your New York sustainability community
• Our Seattle series on Style & Circularity in the Salish Sea starts next week - come join us for dinner​
• Thanks to our awesome facilitation structure at Soapbox, I will be facilitating a call for the Harris campaign to develop climate leadership, political organizing skills for *anyone*, & a greater sense of community! I will send you an invite if you reply to this email with your interest.

Your bite-sized action plan Reader

✅ READ an article about climate migration

There are two articles you can choose from for this READ module on climate migration.

​One is from our fave Grist asking, "What is a 'climate refugee' and how many are there?" It's short, conversational, and a quick read from 2019. The other is an interactive piece from the New York Times Magazine in 2020 that explores climate migration. It's got data, maps, stories from around the world, and a LOT of information. (P.S. We chose earlier pieces to keep some distance between the unnatural disasters that are unfolding in 2024.)

Choose your own adventure; here are some facts below.

• In less than 50 years, a fifth of the world could be an unlivable hot zone. Currently, we're at 1%. By 2070, 19% of the world is projected to be unlivable. It's not that far away, and it means that billions of people will have to move because of climate change. (NYT)
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• Things are heating up hella fast and we're gonna get cooked.
  ​The planet could see a greater temperature increase in the next 50 years than it did in the last 6,000 years combined. By the end of the century, parts of India and China are expected to be so hot that you'll die dead just going outside. (NYT) Big oil be like "let that boy cook" I guess...
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• Climate migration has already come to a geopolitical crisis near you xo
  ​Brexit. The Arab Spring. Pretty much most food crises—42% of El Salvador's residents lack a reliable source of food because of a mix of factors like population increase and crop failure. (NYT) The climate crisis has its grubby little fingerprints everywhere.
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• The issue of climate migration is complicated partially because words are loaded.
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  ​The Grist article points out that "climate refugee" is a loaded term. We need a word for people displaced by climate change and points to the severity of the crisis—in 2017 alone, 18 million people were forced to move due to natural disasters—but the word "refugee" is often used to stir up xenophobia. We will have to choose our words wisely because "the idea of so many people displaced by global warming can be weaponized into a rationale for border walls, military action, or other forms of protectionism." (Grist)
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• Migration can be a great thing! (it's not an inevitable crisis)
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  ​So, on one hand, 40% of city-dwellers are projected to live in slums by 2030. (Yup you read that right; that's 6 years away.) On the other hand, migration can bring great opportunities! New friends! Youth doing cool and trendy things (or okay fine contributing to the workforce)! Better music! Migration itself is inevitable but all of those scary things^ don't have to be. (Also I'm an immigrant so I won't have anyone throwing shade.)
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We CAN create resilient communities. We CAN feed our people. We CAN build more housing. We CAN freaking decarbonize this beautiful planet. If we created this future for ourselves through extractive capitalism and colonialist supremacy, we can create a new one! To create a new future, we need each other. We are the only ones who will save us.

Love,

Nivi

Disaster relief asks & opportunities to help

These resources who have been sent to the Soapbox team by our community members and friends. They are only lightly vetted but we generally trust that there are more helpers than grifters <3

This Hurricane Appalachia doc has immediate relief resources. Please share with people who may need support.

Donation opportunities:

1. General | Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Fund​
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2. North Carolina | DONATE to support Hood Huggers International in Asheville, providing immediate and direct support in hardest hit Buncombe County. Hood Huggers engages in community-based disaster response while forwarding transformative solutions that center BIPOC environmental justice leaders.
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3. Additional Hurricane Helene community relief | here's a post from Soapbox member Rob who shared a list of resources across states and regions.​
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4. Nepal | Help flood-affected families with immediate relief​

Thank you Rob & Jody. Sending everyone affected all my love.