The global refugee crisis continues to grow, as millions of people are displaced by wars, poverty and the direct impacts of the climate crisis, such as floods, droughts and wildfires. Some conflicts, such as the civil war in Syria, have their roots in climate change-impacted drought that drove people into cities, exacerbating social and political tensions. Most displaced people stay within their countries of origin, but an increasing number are crossing borders in search of security and basic resources needed for survival.
Independent Filmmaker Josh Fox is taking on this subject with his newest film, “The Welcome Table,” which highlights the stories of climate refugees around the world and an effort to construct a legal definition of “climate refugee” which doesn’t yet exist under international humanitari
The film is centered around the United Nations’ prediction that at least 1.2 billion people will be displaced by climate change by 2050. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Fox about his Covid-delayed project and an upcoming celebration with climate refugees from around the world in New Orleans.
JOSH FOX: What the film does is track climate migration stories and climate displacement stories all over the world, starting with the wildfires in California and the hurricanes in the Caribbean, that caused enormous damage. Our film, The Welcome Table, is a reaction to the fact that most governments in the world, in reaction to the climate crisis and certainly the migration issues that are coming along with it, is that governments are building walls. They’re building walls and they’re militarizing borders and increasing incarceration, and to do so they’re whipping up xenophobia and racism to get their populations to believe that people from other countries are not people and they should be kept out, even though most of those countries where people are choosing to migrate are the ones responsible for the climate crisis and the people migrating away from the countries affected are the ones not responsible for the climate crisis.
However, the wall is the real hidden climate budget. They don’t want to admit it, but they’re spending more on militarization and incarceration of borders than they are on mitigating climate or on creating renewable energy. But a wall, on its side, can be a table. The wall itself is just a metaphor, a metaphor that says “keep out, go away, we don’t want you.” A table is a metaphor for the opposite: that says we are all here to sit together, to eat together, to celebrate together, to be human together.
So, as we travel around this country and all around the world, shooting these climate stories and showing these people – who are both the aid workers on the front line and the victims of the climate crisis – and we’re inviting them all to a single table in New Orleans, a very long table where 30 or 40 people can sit and eat together – people from Brazil and Peru and southern Louisiana and California and New York and people from Africa and Bangladesh and Europe – all sitting at the same table discussing their stories, telling their stories in a very healing event, talking about food and culture, talking about celebrating our differences, celebrating the beautiful cornucopia of humanity, this incredible gorgeous mosaic of all the cultures we have, and then we’re extending the table 1000 feet long, and we’re making this a big event in New Orleans, like a big party. Most films about climate change are tragedies, right? They’re horribly depressing and sad because it is a tragic situation, but this film we think of as a comedy, in the Shakespearian sense.
In the beginning of a Shakespearian comedy, like Twelfth Night or the Tempest or As You Like It, the lovers are thrown out into the wilderness without a country, they have no place to live, they’re marooned on an island. And at the end, they all get together and there are big celebrations of those people coming together and solving their problems. They find a new place to live and a way to be, and the dignitaries and the musicians and poets all celebrate those people.
So, what we’re doing is we’re creating that celebration at the end of our film, and we have not filmed that part yet. We’re filming that in New Orleans in the fall and we are currently raising money to create that celebration and bring the migrants and the climate-displaced folks all the way from wherever they have been displaced to that table in New Orleans so they can be celebrated. And those in harm’s way can be shown the generosity and the beauty of humanity rather than the xenophobia, racism, incarceration and hatred that is being whipped up right now to fund these walls.
MELINDA TUHUS: You said in your research you found that offending governments are spending more on walls and prisons and military efforts to keep people out than on mitigation or on helping people. I don’t doubt that’s true, but I’m curious because I haven’t heard that exact thing before, can you share the data or where you found that?
JOSH FOX: Well, the person I’m quoting in talking about that is Amalie Tower, who runs the organization Climate Refugees, an amazing organization and her emphasis is to try to get actual refugee status for climate migrants. Currently, refugee status is only conferred on people who have a designation based on the refugee convention of World War II, which is that refugees are defined in a certain way as people who have been oppressed in a certain way, whether that’s race or identify or sexual preference of so forth.
Climate refugees are an entirely different type of status, so she’s campaigning to get climate refugees recognized with an actual legal definition, so I would urge people to look into her work. She is actually speaking at our party in New York on July 12 and also is going to be featured in the film. I follow her to Africa — to Kenya and Tanzania — and watch her doing her work on this issue.
Learn more about the film and a July 12 fundraiser in New York City featuring some of the people in the film, by visiting Josh Fox’s website at joshfoxfilm.com, Josh Fox on Facebook at facebook.com/
For the best listening experience and to never miss an episode, subscribe to Between The Lines on your favorite podcast app or platform: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Tunein + Alexa, Castbox, Overcast, Podfriend, iHeartRadio, Castro, Pocket Casts,RSS Feed
Or subscribe to our Between The Lines and Counterpoint Weekly Summary.
