Project Syndicate: We Are All Climate Refugees Now
Jeffrey D. Sachs, professor of sustainable development and health policy and management at Columbia University, director of Columbia’s Center for Sustainable Development, and director of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network

“…We are all climate refugees now and must chart a path to safety. … So why does humanity keep plunging dumbly ahead, toward certain tragedy? The main reason is that our political institutions and giant corporations willfully ignore the rising dangers and damage [of climate change]. … We need a new kind of politics that starts with a clear global goal: environmental safety for the planet’s people, by fulfilling the Paris climate agreement, protecting biodiversity, and cutting pollution, which kills millions each year. The new politics will listen to scientific and technological experts, not self-interested business leaders and narcissistic politicians. … Such a politics is possible. … Yet, as long as a narrow and ignorant elite condemn Americans and the rest of humanity to wander aimlessly in the political desert, the more likely it is that we will all end up in a wasteland from which there will be no escape” (8/2).