A man from the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, 37-year-old Ioane Teitiota, has been refused his bid to attain legal asylum status as one of the world’s first climate refugees after a judge in New Zealand on Tuesday rebuffed his appeal.

Teitiota’s ongoing legal challenge presents the case that rising sea levels caused by human-caused global warming have imperiled his ability to live in his home country.

Kiribati, with an average elevation of only 6.5 feet about sea level, is among the countries scientists say is most vulnerable to rising oceans and stronger storms, both of which increase as climate change continues to make its impact felt.

But according to Judge John Priestly, the refugee claim did not meet the country’s legal standards for asylum.

“By returning to Kiribati, he would not suffer a sustained and systemic violation of his basic human rights such as the right to life…or the right to adequate food, clothing and housing,” Priestley wrote in his ruling.

And Radio Australia reports:

But as recent events at the UN climate talks in Warsaw showed, wealthy nations have again asserted their unwillingness to deal with the impending crisis of climate refugees.

According to numerous experts and civil society groups like Oxfam International, however, the threat of climate change to vulnerable people will be one of the central destabilizing forces for the century ahead.

“As poor countries feel the effects of climate change, the reality of relocation is of international concern,” Oxfam stated recently. “Pacific islanders will be among the world’s first people displaced because of climate change. Today there are an estimated 26 million climate refugees, yet by 2050, 200 million people a year will be on the move due to hunger, environmental degradation and loss of land due to climate change.”

In the singular case of Teitiota and Kiribati, the case exemplifies the growing issue of how wealthy, more developed nations will be asked to deal with an influx of those driven from their native lands by the onset of climate change.

As Reuters reports:

Teitiota is still able to appeal his case further, or he could be reported. Either way, his case may be the first, but it won’t be the last of its kind. If the experts are correct, there could be millions more in the decades ahead.

________________________________

Click Here: camiseta rosario central