Climate Refugees

Film evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at 6:30 pm,
followed by the film at 7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the film.

CLIMATE REFUGEES
by Michael Nash

There is a new phenomenon in the global arena called “Climate Refugees.” A climate refugee is a person displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters. Such disasters result from incremental and rapid ecological change, resulting in increased droughts, desertification, sea level rise, and the more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, cyclones, fires, mass flooding, and tornadoes. All this is causing mass global migration and border conflicts. For the first time, the Pentagon now considers climate change a national security risk and the term climate wars is being talked about in war-room like environments in Washington D.C.

To make his film, filmmaker Michael Nash visited nearly 50 countries in about 18 months to interview politicians, scientists, health workers, and victims of floods, cyclones, hurricanes, and droughts. His film shows how people all around the world are already grappling with the social, economic, and environmental effects of climate change. His conclusion is that major changes in climate are causing vast numbers of people to abandon their jobs, homes, and countries to seek better lives elsewhere, or simply to survive. He poses a basic question: What will become of the millions of people whose lack of access to food and clean water leads them to take increasingly desperate measures? What type of strains will huge migration put on resources in more developed countries? Whatever is causing the climate to change, people still have to deal with islands going under water and people running out of food. The film shows how our new green values of sustainability are as economic and social as they are environmental. And Michael Nash also interviews prominent leaders from the U.S. and elsewhere to point out that solutions — particularly in energy transformations — are possible and within our reach.

Wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street

$5 donations are accepted