#   Climate, Migration, and Health: Where to Begin? 

 





October 26, 2017

 

 

Whether it’s Houston flooding, wildfires in California, or the literally “baked earth” from drought in Syria, extreme climate events challenge good governance and radically influence how people move. More often than not, distress migrants—individuals who flee due to natural disasters or the impacts of climate change on their lives and livelihoods—typically move to cities, and in turn, change the global urban landscape. Displacement and climate change inevitably intersect with and undermine health. How might such challenges inform better health systems, policies, civil society, and global governance? This question was the focus of a recent [Harvard Global Health Institute symposium](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/09/analysts-warn-of-increasing-link-between-climate-change-migration), “Climate Change, Migration, and Health,” which brought together experts in human rights, climate security, humanitarian response, and environmental sustainability.

Many of today’s distress migrants, said keynote speaker Dr. Jennifer Leaning, Director of the [FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University](https://fxb.harvard.edu/), do not qualify as legally protected refugees. The Geneva Convention applies only to persons who flee across national borders, and do so in “well-founded” fear of persecution. To address such issues, prevention is key, she insisted. Early warning interventions are the best tools we have to predict—and help prevent—climate-related crises such as famine, civil conflict, and mass atrocities. Two model examples, she noted, include the [Famine Early Warning Systems Network](http://www.fews.net/) and the 2014 United Nations prevention tool, [Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes](http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/about-us/Doc.3_Framework%20of%20Analysis%20for%20Atrocity%20Crimes_EN.pdf).

The Incubator—currently collaborating with the FXB Center on several projects—includes a wide range of resources on climate and migration in its [online repository](http://repository.gheli.harvard.edu/repository/). These include an [annotated bibliography](http://repository.gheli.harvard.edu/repository/10595/) for teachers, developed in partnership with the [Global Studies Outreach](https://globalstudiesoutreach.harvard.edu/) program at Harvard. Inspired by the symposium, the Incubator is also developing additional teaching resources for educators wishing to encourage further thinking on the intersection of climate, migration, and health in their classrooms.



 

 

 



 

 

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