TOUCH THE EARTH

The line was long. Miles long. People standing, waiting for admission. People of all ages. People of all colors. Hot, cloudless, smoke from recent fires hung in the air, causing the girl to gag slightly, her throat dry. Fear, anxiety and fatigue enveloped her.

The line was restless. Humanity pressed together. People abandoned their privacy when nature called, and people stopped to perform body function while in line for fear of losing their place in line. The long line. Miles long.

Rumors spread about what documentation was required to enter. Would officials accept online documentation, or was hard copy required? Originals or copies? Original signatures? Birth certificate? Passport? Proof of voter registration? No answers. Only questions. The one certainty that united the people was that each one wanted in. The girl wanted in and was willing to wait in line to get in.

Only a few years earlier, the girl had lived with the family in a neighborhood on the New Jersey coast. She had lived the teen beach life, swimming, and surfing. Living on the coast, the girl was accustomed to storms and hurricanes. With global warming, the storms grew more frequent and more violent with destructive winds and devastating storm surge. Hurricanes were no longer measured by season because with global warming, hurricanes frequency occurred year round. Hurricanes were still called by names in alphabetical order, but now, 26 letters was not enough to name all the hurricanes, so the storms now were identified by both a name and a number. Insurance companies would no longer insure coastal properties, and no government was willing to compensate owners of real property subject to the violent weather and sudden on-set disasters like floods and storms. Storm destruction extended inland because of the copious rainfall. Coastal erosion limited the amount of inhabitable coastal land.

As the ocean grew warmer, sea life changed. Sharks now populated the entire eastern seaboard and it was no longer safe to swim or surf or for recreational boating. People no longer went to the coast for recreation. Fishermen could no longer go out in wooden boats because sharks would attack the boats. Climate change made the sharks more predatory and aggressive. Certain fish species died out, affecting human food sources. With the loss of fishing and tourism, the coastal economy was devastated. Fresh water in coastal cities was now contaminated by the inflow of seawater as sea levels rose, and low-lying coastal areas restricted human water consumption.

The girl’s parents had commuted into New York City from New Jersey, but as the Atlantic Ocean and coastal waters rose, the tunnels, subway system and bridges into the City were no longer functional for commuters. New York City lacked the infrastructure to combat the rising waters that surrounded the City, and commuting was no longer feasible. The girl’s parents could not keep their jobs, and the family lost their source of income. Evicted from their coastal home, no longer able to work in the City, the girl and the family were forced to move.

“We need to move,” the father said. “Our home is no longer safe for us and the local economy can no longer support us. The government will not pay to build the infrastructure needed to maintain our lives here. We must move inland and rebuild our lives.” The family bought a van, packed their possessions into the van, and became homeless nomads, searching for a new home, a place to belong, a new beginning.

While the girl and the family and other coastal families dealt with the effects of climate change on their coastal lives, others in the United States were impacted by wildfires and the secondary impact of smoke from those fires. People vulnerable to wildfires on the other side of the country were moving to areas at less risk for wildfires. Millions of people had been displaced by wildfires, and the number grew as the fires raged.

The deteriorating environmental situation caused droughts in other parts of the country, limiting the food supply for the whole United States. Droughts in the southwest depleted regional water supplies. Federal and state governments, gripped by political short-sighted policies, failed to pass legislation to protect citizens displaced by environmental disasters. Political divides intensified. States began hoarding their resources to provide resources only to their own residents. Personal proof of state residency became crucial to qualify for any governmental benefits.

Climate change became a massive driver of migration within the United States as citizens relocated to escape both rapid weather events and slow-moving environmental crises. The girl and the family, along with millions of other US citizens, became climate displaced persons. First, widespread migration was a portrait of people fleeing Central America and Africa, but as climate change intensified, even the United States could no longer avoid displacement of its own citizens. The warming planet was driving human migration within the United States as well as to the United States.

Interstate competition for food, water and other resources intensified, particularly in those states hit hardest by natural disasters. Citizens of red states claimed outsiders were taking their resources, causing states to create strict residency requirements including proof of birth and voter registration. Red states claimed that the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution allowed the state to restrict which US citizens could enter.

Blue states welcomed all new residents, regardless of political affiliation. Blue state governments thought new residents would fuel economic prosperity to the state and enhance the workforce. Blue states claimed the US Constitution authorized states to allow all US citizens to enter.

Effectively, American citizens no longer could freely travel or relocate within their own country. US citizens had to seek asylum to move from one state to another state. To control the asylum process of American citizens within the United States, states created climate visas for US citizens. Climate displacement visas could be granted for a specific number of years and renewed. Such visas could offer a path to permanent residency in the desired state of residence.

The girl and the family were restricted from moving outside of New Jersey, a blue state, into a neighboring red state, Pennsylvania. First, Pennsylvania enacted strong voter registration limits. Then, Pennsylvania enacted strong residency requirements that included political affiliation. Pennsylvania denied the family’s move into Pennsylvania on the basis the family was relocating from a blue state and did not affiliate with the controlling red state political party.

The family and other migrants were forced to camp inside New Jersey along the Delaware River because they could not move across the river into Pennsylvania without being vetted for residency based on political affiliation. Ironically, the famous revered historical telling of George Washington crossing the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to fight the British Army in Trenton, New Jersey in the Revolutionary War was now considered a false nonhistorical narrative and was no longer part of mainstream grade school curriculum.

Unable to return to their coastal home and unable to move across the river into Pennsylvania, the family decided they needed to split up. The family would remain camped along the Delaware River and try to obtain a climate visa to enter Pennsylvania. The family believed the girl would have a better chance of relocating as a single person with no political affiliation. The girl left the family to travel alone.

After leaving the family, the girl was able to travel across the Delaware River at an older, less utilized bridge where she was not vetted. Once she was within the borders of Pennsylvania, the girl was able to use public transportation to travel across the state. Public transportation allowed the girl the protection of a group, and she was less vulnerable as a single undocumented female traveling alone. Authorities did not check voter registration on public transportation, and the girl was able to travel freely, moving westward.

Borders between Pennsylvania, a red state, and Ohio, a red state, and between Ohio and Indiana, another red state, were porous, and the girl was able to continue traveling across the Midwest without proof of voter registration or political affiliation because she did not try to establish residency in those states. As she traveled across the Rust Belt, more displaced persons roamed the streets in overcrowded urban centers. Pennsylvania had diverted its public resources to voter registration and election recounts, and no longer provided sufficient public services to its growing homeless and unemployed population.

As the girl traveled, she witnessed agricultural degradation from climate change. Because of rainfall pattern shifts, once fertile fields were now either flooded by inland flooding, or parched from lack of rain. More frequent occurrences of climate extremes such as high temperatures and drought had adversely impacted agriculture at both local and regional scales. Farmers depend on specific climate conditions. Temperature changes from global warming caused crop planting dates to shift and hindered farming practices. Reduced crop yield created food scarcity.

As the Great Lakes rose to record high levels, populations and industry along the lakes had to relocate, resulting in even more economic instability and displaced persons. Air pollution worsened. Inland flooding increased as storms grew more frequent and more violent. State and federal legislatures refused to broaden the definition of public interest to encompass the climate-migration nexus, and to address the humanitarian needs arising from national migration flows as people tried to relocate to safety.

The girl, a US citizen, now a displaced climate migrant in her own country, anxiously stood in the long line, waiting to be granted asylum in Illinois, a blue state. The girl hoped she would be welcomed and would eventually be joined by the family so the whole family could create a new life together. The girl, along with others displaced by climate change, maintained the right to physical security and dignity. In the girl’s head, and in her heart rose a chorus celebrating the humanitarian vision of Emma Lazarus inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.