Maria Meza and her children from Honduras

fleeing tear gas at US border

Northern Arizona, USA -for immediate release - Tens of millions around the world are now fleeing climate disasters every year. Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are drying up. Farmers in these countries can no longer support their families. They flee to the cities, where there is not enough work, and ultimately, they flee northward.

Such changing conditions from drought to floods to wildfires to massive hurricanes are leading to millions of climate refugees all over the world. Twenty-five million people were displaced by climate disasters in 2019, and the World Bank projects that climate change will displace 143 million people per year by 2050, unless we do something about it right now.

While the USA is among the biggest polluters causing greenhouse gas emissions, we seem to be unable to take responsibility for the consequences of our actions. Our borders are shut to these climate refugees even though we are largely responsible for their plight. Since our government refuses to help these people, we citizens of Arizona feel the need to protest their failing policies, until they act to reign in our CO2 emissions and support climate refugees.

Across the world and in the US, it is people of color who are being most negatively affected by climate change. For example, in Phoenix, AZ the economically less privileged folks have been hit hardest by extreme high temperatures. The city is now installing cooling refuges and hydration stations for folks who can’t afford to cool their homes. The more privileged folks cool their homes and some buy second homes in cooler places like Flagstaff.

ShoeStrike for Climate Justice. Since we cannot gather safely in large numbers due to the pandemic, in Flagstaff for example, we are holding a ShoeStrike for Climate Justice, modeled on the SkoStrejk movement that started in Sweden and is now spreading to other parts of the World. People will in Flagstaff bring their shoes and protest signs to City Hall on Saturday, July 25th. The protest will take place from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. The ShoeStrike is sponsored by Fridays for Future, the Northern Arizona Climate Change Alliance, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and ___your organization’s name here_____. You can also fill out to register other locations here or to participate at a location, here on the right.

Government failure to act. With an ongoing tragic corona pandemic and economies in free fall, our Federal decision makers are busy today. But strong leadership is also about being able to look beyond the chaotic present and act now to address a far greater challenge: the climate crisis. While many US cities, like Flagstaff, are implementing strong climate action and adaptation plans, our federal government has backed out of our country’s commitments to the international Paris Climate Accord.

In the Paris Agreement, 194 countries agreed that the average temperature increase should be limited to well below 2 degrees with the aim of limiting it to 1.5 degrees. Despite this, greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. Since the industrial revolution, we have already raised the average temperature by 1.2 degrees.

The warming means not just elevated sea levels, but also dehydrated grazing land and greater evaporation of our precious water. Rangeland productivity has already dropped by over 80% in much of Coconino County. As of June 16th, there were 941 wildfires in Arizona this year, having burned over 170,000 acres. On June 22nd there were 73 active fires burning in our state.

Clearly these outcomes are unsustainable. Water availability and food production are projected to drop even further in Central America, and corn production is shifting northward into Canada. There are plenty of things that individuals do to reduce their carbon footprints. Our state and federal representatives need to take the bigger steps towards a sustainable and secure society. In January, our Coconino County Board of Supervisors approved construction of the 477-Megawatt Chevelon Butte Wind Power Plant. This is a step in the right direction, and we need many more big steps like this.

At the end of 2019 the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that they will stop making loans for projects involving fossil fuels. The World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and other major global financial institutions are now considering whether to follow the EIB’s example. Perhaps our cities should build a more sustainable future by divesting from fossil fuels, before their value plummets. Perhaps our government leadership should build a more sustainable future for us all, by investing in the coming technologies of wind and solar power.

Meanwhile, what are our responsibilities for helping climate refugees? Do we just continue putting them in refugee camps? Do we ignore them until their desperate plight boils over at home and on our borders?

To learn more please visit http://www.NAZCCA.org., or sign up on the right.

For questions about the ShoeStrike for Climate Justice in Flagstaff or to get involved please contact

or call (928) 607-2028.