The disturbing links between climate change and modern-day slavery

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

In 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that the greatest impact of climate change could be on human migration, with millions displaced by erosion, flooding and food system disruptions. Now, forecasts from the World Bank warn of more than 200 million environmental migrants by 2050.

International Justice Mission (IJM), a global organization that protects people in poverty from violence, observed this connection in South Asia where we combat forced labor slavery. The IJM casework data indicated that 78 percent of rescued forced laborers had come from regions where impacts from climate change had placed their fundamental livelihoods at risk.

Additionally, IJM finds that in places where people profit from enslaving and exploiting human beings with next-to-no risk of legal sanction, the same offenders often also profit from exploiting and destroying the natural environment without risk of punitive action. Slavery and environmental destruction flourish where criminal impunity prevails and legal protection for both people and the environment is lacking.

(snip)

It always made sense that slavery and environmental destruction would thrive if there were massive profits to be made with virtually no risk of punishment. And now for slavery, we have proof of the opposite — that slavery enterprises collapse when there are effective and sustained legal actions taken against the perpetrators. Likewise, we can expect that illicit enterprises of environmental destruction will be dramatically reduced when justice systems are finally strengthened to impose swift and reliable criminal penalties.

(snip)

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/3754755-the-disturbing-links-between-climate-change-and-modern-day-slavery/

[appalachiablue]

1. Thanks for posting about this growing global scourge. K/R

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Thanks for sharing this with us, Joe. We have a strong group of concerned environmentalists in...

the Environment & Energy Group. I suggest a cross post there if you haven't already considered it.