Hyperbole versus Fact

Abstract

While climate change displacement has been identified as a possible risk in Table 1.1, it is already occurring and has become a nascent international concern, even though few have noticed this (Monbiot, 2009). Although not widely known or understood, spontaneous and organized internal and external migrations due to climate change are occurring around the globe. Projected hot spots of movement include the dryer areas of Africa, regions near the delta systems in South Asia, the coasts of Mexico and the Caribbean, and the low lying islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Beyond projections, movement is already occurring on small, low lying islands which are the most vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise. What is known about such movement has been described in colorful, exciting, and hyperbolic terms. While this has been mostly propagated by the media, it has encroached into academic writing on the topic as well. What is disturbing is that these discourses provoke spectacle instead of understanding, fiction instead of fact, and a macabre longing for the worst to happen. The three main discourses in which this is most evident are the “canary in the coal mine”, “lost city of Atlantis”, and “sinking islands”.