Climate Barbarians at the Gate? A critique of apocalyptic narratives on 'climate refugees'

Geoforum

Volumn 45, Issue , 2013, Pages 63-72

  Bettini, Giovanni ^a  

^a LUND UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

Climate change; Climate refugees; Climate security; Discourse theory; Migration; Post politics

Indexed keywords

CLIMATE CHANGE; GLOBAL CLIMATE; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; HUMANITARIAN AID; MIGRATION; REFUGEE;

EID: 84874018019     PISSN: 00167185     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.09.009     Document Type: Article

References (127)

1. Adger W.N., Tor A.B., Katrina B., Hanne S. Advancing a political ecology of global environmental discourses. Development and Change 2001, 32(4):681-715.
2. Baechler G. Why environmental transformation causes violence. A synthesis. Environmental Change and Security Project Report 1998, 4:24-44.
3. Bakewell O. 'Keeping Them in Their Place': the ambivalent relationship between development and migration in Africa. Third World Quarterly 2008, 29(7):1341-1358.
4. Bardsley D.K., Hugo G.J. Migration and climate change: examining thresholds of change to guide effective adaptation decision-making. Population and Environment 2010, 32(2):238-262.
5. Barnett J. Destabilizing the environment-conflict thesis. Review of International Studies 2000, 26(2):271-288.
6. Barnett, J., Webber, M., 2009. Accommodating Migration to Promote Adaptation to Climate Change. Commission on Climate Change and Development, University of Melbourne, Melbourne.
7. Bates D.C. Environmental refugees? Classifying human migrations caused by environmental change. Population and Environment 2002, 23(5):465-477.
8. Bhaskar R. A Realist Theory of Science 2008, Routledge, London, Routledge.
9. Biermann F., Boas I. Protecting climate refugees the case for a global protocol. Environment 2008, 50(6):8-16.
10. Biermann F., Boas I. Preparing for a warmer world: towards a global governance system to protect climate refugees. Global Environmental Politics 2010, 10(1):60-88.
11. Black, R., 2001. Environmental Refugees: Myth or Reality? New Issues in Refugee Research - UNHCR Working Paper 70.
12. Black, R., Kniveton, D., Skeldon, R., Coppard, D., Murata, A., Schmidt-Verkrk, K., 2008. Demographics and Climate Change: Future Trends and their Policy Implications for Migration. Working Paper 27. University of Sussex, Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty, Brighton.
13. Boas, I., 2012. Climate migration, security and the mitigation of climate change: explaining and interpreting securitizing moves. Paper Presented at the Workshop 'The Securitisation of Climate-Induced Migration: Critical Perspectives', Hamburg, 10-12 June.
14. Bogardi J., Warner K. Here comes the flood. Nature Reports. Climate Change 2009, 3:9-11.
15. Brown O. Migration and Climate Change 2008, International Organization for Migration, Geneva.
16. Burke M.B., Miguel E., Satyanath S., Dykema J.A., Lobell D.B. Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2009, 106(49):20670-20674.
17. Byravan S., Rajan S.C. Providing new homes for climate change exiles. Climate Policy 2006, 6(2):247-252.
18. Care International, 2011. The Human Face of Climate Change. (accessed 20.04.12). http://www.careclimatechange.org/files/CARE_docs/CARE_&_Climate_Change.pdf.
19. Castles, S., 2002. Environmental change and forced migration: making sense of the debate. New issues in Refugee Research - UNHCR working paper 70.
20. Castles S. Understanding global migration: a social transformation perspective. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2010, 36(10):1565-1586.
21. Castles S. Concluding remarks on the climate change-migration nexus. Migration and Climate Change 2011, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. E. Piguet, A. Pécoud, P. de Guchteneire (Eds.).
22. Christian Aid Human Tide. The Real Migration Crisis 2007, Christian Aid, London.
23. Clapp J., Dauvergne P. Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment 2005, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
24. Dalby S. Security and Environmental Change 2009, Polity, Cambridge.
25. Detraz N., Betsill M.M. Climate change and environmental security: for whom the discourse shifts. International Studies Perspectives 2009, 10(3):303-320.
26. Dikeç M. Space, politics, and the political. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2005, 23(2):171-189.
27. Docherty B., Giannini T. Confronting a rising tide: a proposal for a convention on climate change refugees. Harvard Environmental Law Review 2009, 33(2):349-403.
28. Doulton H., Brown K. Ten years to prevent catastrophe?. Global Environmental Change 2009, 19(2):191-202.
29. Dryzek J.S., Stevenson H. Democratising the global climate regime. (De-)constructing the Greenhouse: Interpretive Approaches to Global Climate Governance 2012, Routledge, London, New York, (forthcoming). C. Methmann, D. Rothe, B. Stephan (Eds.).
30. Elliott L. Climate migration and climate migrants: what threat, whose security?. Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives 2010, 131-150. Hart Publishing, Oxford. J. McAdam (Ed.).
31. Environmental Justice Foundation No Place Like Home - Where Next for Climate Refugees? 2009, Environmental Justice Foundation, London.
32. Ereaut, G., Segnit, N., 2006. Warm Words: How are We Telling the Climate Story and Can We Tell It Better? Institute for Public Policy Research, London.
33. EU, 2008. Climate Change and International Security - Paper from the High Representative and the European Commission to the European Council. (accessed 10.03.12). http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/reports/99387.pdf.
34. European Council, 2012. Lives Lost in the Mediterranean Sea: Who is Responsible? Resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly, 24 April 2012. (accessed 20.05.12). http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/Doc/XrefATDetails_E.asp?FileID=18234.
35. Farbotko C., Lazrus H. The first climate refugees? Contesting global narratives of climate change in Tuvalu. Global Environmental Change 2012, 22(2):382-390.
36. Feldman M.S., Brown R.N., Horner D. Making sense of stories: a rhetorical approach to narrative analysis. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory: J-PART 2004, 14(2):147-170.
37. Findlay A.M. Migrant destinations in an era of environmental change. Global Environmental Change 2011, 21(Supplement 1):S50-S58.
38. Findley S.E. Does drought increase migration? A study of migration from rural Mali during the 1983-1985 drought. International Migration Review 1994, 28(3):539-553.
39. Flyvbjerg B. Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it can Succeed Again 2001, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
40. Foresight, 2011. Final Project Report - Foresight: Migration and Global Environmental Change. The Government Office for Science, London.
41. Gemenne F. Climate-induced population displacements in a 4°C+world. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 2011, 369(1934):182-195.
42. Gemenne F. How they became the human face of climate change. Research and policy interactions in the birth of the 'environmental migration' concept. Migration and Climate Change 2011, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. E. Piguet, A. Pécoud, P. de Guchteneire (Eds.).
43. Gemenne F. Why the numbers don't add up: a review of estimates and predictions of people displaced by environmental changes. Global Environmental Change 2011, 21(Supplement 1):S41-S49.
44. Glynos J., Howarth D.R. Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory 2007, Routledge, London.
45. Gray C.L. Environment, Land, and Rural Out-migration in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes. World Development 2009, 37(2):457-468.
46. Gray C.L. Soil quality and human migration in Kenya and Uganda. Global Environmental Change 2011, 21(2):421-430.
47. Gray C.L., Mueller V. Natural disasters and population mobility in Bangladesh 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
48. Hajer M.A. The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process 1995, Clarendon Press, Oxford, New York.
49. Hajer M.A. Doing discourse analysis: coalitions, practices, meaning. Words Matter in Policy and Planning: Discourse Theory and Method in the Social Sciences 2006, 65-74. Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap: Netherlands Graduate School of Urban and Regional Research, Utrecht. M. van den Brink, T. Metze (Eds.).
50. Hartmann B. Rethinking climate refugees and climate conflict: rhetoric, reality and the politics of policy discourse. Journal of International Development 2010, 22(2):233-246.
51. Henry S., Schoumaker B., Beauchemin C. The impact of rainfall on the first out-migration: a multi-level event-history analysis in Burkina Faso. Population and Environment 2004, 25(5):423-460.
52. Homer-Dixon T.F. Environmental scarcities and violent conflict. International Security 1994, 19(1):5-41.
53. Hulme M. Newspaper scare headlines can be counter-productive. Nature 2007, 445(7130):818.
54. IPCC, 1992. IPCC First Assessment Report.
55. IPCC Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; New York. L. Parry, O.F. Canziani, J.P. Palutikof, P.J. van der Linden, C.E. Hanson (Eds.).
56. Jakobeit C., Methmann C. 'Climate Refugees' as dawning catastrophe? A critique of the dominant quest for numbers. Climate change, human security and violent conflict: challenges for societal stability 2012, Springer, New York. J. Scheffran, M. Brzoska, H.G. Brauch, P.M. Link, J. Schilling (Eds.).
57. Johnson H.L. Click to donate: visual images, constructing victims and imagining the female refugee. Third World Quarterly 2011, 32(6):1015-1037.
58. Jonsson G. The Environmental Factor in Migration Dynamics - A Review of African Case Studies, Working Paper Series - Paper 21 2010, International Migartion Institute - University of Oxford, Oxford.
59. Kaplan R.D. The coming anarchy: how scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet 1994, Atlantic Monthly, Boston, Mass.
60. Knight S. The Human Tsunami 2009, The Financial Times.
61. Kniveton, D.R., 2008. Climate Change and Migration: Improving Methodologies to Estimate Flows, IOM Migration Research Series 33. International Organization for Migration, Geneva.
62. Kolmannskog V. Towards a humanitarian climate change agreement. Forced Migration Review 2009, 33:72.
63. Kälin W. Conceptualising climate-induced displacement. Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives 2010, 81-103. Hart Publishing, Oxford. J. McAdam (Ed.).
64. Laclau E. Emancipation(s) 1996, Verso, London.
65. Laclau E. On Populist Reason 2005, Verso, London.
66. Laclau E., Bhaskar R. Discourse Theory vs. Critical Realism. Alethia 1998, 1(2):9-14.
67. Laclau E., Mouffe C. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics 2001, Verso, London.
68. Laczko F., Aghazarm C. Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Assessing the Evidence 2009, International Organization for Migration, Geneva.
69. Latour B. Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy 2004, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
70. Malnes R. Climate science and the way we ought to think about danger. Environmental Politics 2008, 17(4):660-672.
71. Manzo K. Imaging vulnerability: the iconography of climate change. Area 2010, 42(1):96-107.
72. Marchart O. Post-foundational Political Thought: Political Difference in Nancy, Lefort, Badiou and Laclau 2007, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.
73. Massey D.S., Axinn W.G., Ghimire D.J. Environmental change and out-migration: evidence from Nepal. Population and Environment 2010, 32(2):109-136.
74. McAdam J. Refusing 'refuge' in the Pacific: (de)constructing climate-induced displacement in international laws. Migration and Climate Change 2011, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. E. Piguet, A. Pécoud, P. de Guchteneire (Eds.).
75. McNamara K.E., Gibson C. 'We do not want to leave our land': Pacific ambassadors at the United Nations resist the category of 'climate refugees'. Geoforum 2009, 40(3):475-483.
76. Methmann C.P., Rothe D. Apocalypse now: from exceptional rhetoric to risk technologies in global climate governance. (De-)constructing the Greenhouse: Interpretive Approaches to Global Climate Governance 2012, Routledge, London, New York, (forthcoming). C. Methmann, D. Rothe, B. Stephan (Eds.).
77. Methmann C.P. "Climate Protection" as empty signifier: a discourse theoretical perspective on climate mainstreaming in world politics. Millennium 2010, 39(2):345-372.
78. Morrissey J. Environmental Change and Forced Migration: A State of the Art Review. Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford Department of International Development, Queen Elizabeth House 2009, University of Oxford, Oxford.
79. Mouffe C. On the Political. Thinking in Action 2005, Routledge, London.
80. Myers N. Environment and security. Foreign Policy 1989, 74:23-41.
81. Myers, N., 2005. Environmental Refugees: An Emergent Security Issue. Prague: 13th Economic Forum, 23-27 May.
82. Nordås R., Gleditsch N.P. Climate change and conflict. Political Geography 2007, 26(6):627-638.
83. O'Brien K., Eriksen S., Nygaard L.P., Schjolden A. Why different interpretations of vulnerability matter in climate change discourses. Climate Policy 2007, 7(1):73-88.
84. O'Lear S., Diehl P.F. Not drawn to scale: research on resource and environmental conflict. Geopolitics 2007, 12(1):166-183.
85. O'Neill S., Nicholson-Cole S. "Fear Won't Do It": promoting positive engagement with climate change through visual and iconic representations. Science Communication 2009, 30(3):355-379.
86. Oels, A., 2010. Saving "climate refugees" as bare life? A theory-based critique of refugee status for climate-induced migrants. In: Paper Prepared for Presentation at the ESF-ZiF-Bielefeld Conference on Environmental Degradation and Conflict: From Vulnerabilities to Capabilities", Hosted by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, in Bad Salzuflen, Germany, 5-9th December 2010.
87. Parry M., Lowe J., Hanson C. Overshoot, adapt and recover. Nature 2009, 458(7242):1102-1103.
88. Pielke R.A. The honest broker: making sense of science in policy and politics 2007, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
89. Piguet E. Linking climate change, environmental degradation, and migration: a methodological overview. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 2010, 1(4):517-524.
90. Piguet E., Pécoud A., de Guchteneire P. Migration and Climate Change: An Overview 2011, Refugee Survey Quarterly.
91. Raleigh C. The search for safety: the effects of conflict, poverty and ecological influences on migration in the developing world. Global Environmental Change 2011, 21(Supplement 1):S82-S93.
92. Rancière J. On the Shore of Politics 1995, Verso, London.
93. Rancière J. Ten theses on politics. Theory & Event 2001, 5(3).
94. Rancière J. Introducing disagreement. Angelaki 2004, 9(3):3-9.
95. Renaud F., Bogardi J.J., Dun O., Warner K. Control, Adapt or Flee: How to Face Environmental Migration? InterSecTions, Interdisciplinary Security Connections/Publication Series of UNU-EHS 2007, UNU-EHS, Bonn, Germany.
96. Reuveny R. Climate change-induced migration and violent conflict. Political Geography 2007, 26(6):656-673.
97. Reuveny R., Maxwell J.W., Davis J. On conflict over natural resources. Ecological Economics 2011, 70(4):698-712.
98. Risbey J.S. The new climate discourse: alarmist or alarming?. Global Environmental Change - Human and Policy Dimensions 2008, 18(1):26-37.
99. Salehyan I. From climate change to conflict? No consensus yet. Journal of Peace Research 2008, 45(3):315-327.
100. Sayer A. Realism and Social Science 2000, Sage, Thousand Oaks, Calif, London.
101. Scheffran J., Brzoska M., Brauch H.G., Link P.M., Schilling J. Climate Change, Human Security and Violent Conflict: Challenges for Societal Stability 2012, Springer, New York.
102. Scheffran J., Brzoska M., Kominek J., Link P.M., Schilling J. Climate change and violent conflict. Science 2012, 336(6083):869-871.
103. Schneider S. The worst-case scenario. Nature 2009, 458(7242):1104-1105.
104. Smith P.J. Climate change, mass migration and the military response. Orbis 2007, 51(4):617-633.
105. Solomon S., Plattner G.-K., Knutti R., Friedlingstein P. Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2009, 106(6):1704-1709.
106. Stavrakakis Y. Green ideology: a discursive reading. Journal of Political Ideologies 1997, 2(3):259-279.
107. Stern N. The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review 2007, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
108. Suhrke A. Environmental degradation and population flows. Journal of International Affairs 1994, 47(2):473-496.
109. Swyngedouw E. The Antinomies of the postpolitical city: in search of a democratic politics of environmental production. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 2009, 33(3):601-620.
110. Swyngedouw E. Apocalypse forever? Post-political populism and the spectre of climate change. Theory, Culture & Society 2010, 27(2-3):213-232.
111. Swyngedouw E. Trouble with nature: 'ecology as the new opium for the masses'. The Ashgate Research Companion to Planning Theory: Conceptual Challenges for Spatial Planning 2010, Ashgate, Farnham. J. Hillier, P. Healey (Eds.).
112. Swyngedouw E. Interrogating post-democratization: reclaiming egalitarian political spaces. Political Geography 2011, 30(7):370-380.
113. Tacoli C. Crisis or adaptation? Migration and climate change in a context of high mobility. Environment and Urbanization 2009, 21(2):513-525.
114. UNHCR, 2012. Mediterranean takes Record as Most Deadly Stretch of Water for Refugees and Migrants in 2011. UNHCR Spokesman Sybella Wilkes Press Briefing, 31 January 2012. (accessed 20.05.12). http://www.unhcr.org.
115. United Nations General Assembly, 2009. Climate Change and its Possible Security Implications. Report of the Secretary-General. (accessed 20.05.12). http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4ad5e6380.html.
116. Warner K., Hamza M., Oliver-Smith A., Renaud F., Julca A. Climate change, environmental degradation and migration. Natural Hazards 2009, 55(3):689-715.
117. WBGU Climate change as a security risk 2008, Earthscan, London.
118. Westra L. Environmental Justice and the Rights of Ecological Refugees 2009, Earthscan, London.
119. White G. Climate Change and Migration: Security and Borders in a Warming World 2011, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
120. Williams E.C. Combined and Uneven Apocalypse 2011, Zero, Ropley.
121. WPC, 2010a. People's Agreement - World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. (accessed 10.03.12). http://pwccc.wordpress.com/category/working-groups/06-climate-migrants.
122. WPC, 2010b. World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. (accessed 10.03.12). http://pwccc.wordpress.com.
123. Zetter R. Protecting people displaced by climate change: some conceptual challenges. Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives 2010, 131-150. Hart Publishing, Oxford. J. McAdam (Ed.).
124. Zhang D.D., Brecke P., Lee H.F., He Y.-Q., Zhang J. Global climate change, war, and population decline in recent human history. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2007, 104(49):19214-19219.
125. Žižek S. Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture 1991, MIT Press, London.
126. Žižek S. The Sublime Object of Ideology 2008 [1989], Verso, London.
127. Žižek S. Living in the End Times 2010, Verso, London.