Originally posted on Boston University's International Relations Review Blog
As the world’s climate shifts, Central American natives are finding themselves forced to shift as well. The shifting climate has destroyed the agricultural region’s main source of income through rising temperatures, extreme droughts, and disastrous hurricanes. The World Bank predicts that by 2050, roughly 2 million people will be displaced from Central America due to the effects of climate change.
Countries in this region such as El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala have seen a continuous push factor of political disorder and ongoing conflict, but migrants moving as a result of new environmental conditions are on the rise. According to German Watch’s Global Climate Risk Index, Honduras and Nicaragua are among the top 10 countries impacted by climate change since 1998. Despite the great impact on these countries, these Central American countries have barely contributed to the global greenhouse gas emissions.
These regions primarily rely on agriculture to sustain their communities. For example, coffee bean production has been seriously hurt by extreme weather from extended droughts to deadly rain. Central America’s dry corridor - a large agricultural region by the Pacific Coast - has seen a series of detrimental droughts throughout the past five years. Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras lost approximately 281,000 hectares of maize and beans due to droughts, according to the World Food Program. Hunger and poverty continue to rise in these regions, as they become increasingly inhabitable.
Thus, Central American farmers have been left with two options: find new methods to farm an unreliable environment, or find a new home. While environmental engineers are discovering new solutions to grow agriculture in these new climates, these methods are expensive; most Central American countries remain to be some of the poorest nations in the Western Hemisphere. The United States in the past has dedicated millions of dollars to the development of Central America, and started to direct funding toward agriculture and environment programs after seeing drastic climate change. However, under the current administration, a large amount of this funding has been cut, leaving these farmers with little food and unpredictable weather.
Therefore, most migrants are forced to pack their bags and head north. Nevertheless, the results of migrating north can be as unreliable as the region’s rain. The drop in United States funding may increase the number of immigrants at the border, but gaining status in the United States still remains challenging. Last year, 87% of Central American immigrants at the southern border were from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras; the link between this majority and climate change effects is impossible to ignore.
This ultimately proposes a question, not only for the United States, but for the planet: how should governments approach immigrants seeking refuge from inhabitable climates? The most developed countries have been the biggest contributors to climate change and the least affected by climate change’s damage. Thus, while these wealthier countries are left pondering this question, the question still remains for Central America’s poorer inhabitants: leave the land they know and love, or deal with Mother Nature’s wrath?
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