Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security
According to the U.S. military, climate change now poses the #1 national security threat to the United States. In 2015 alone, 19.2 million people were displaced worldwide by environmental disasters. Droughts, fires, and floods are driving ever-larger numbers of people to cross national borders. The problem is not just the vast numbers of people on the move, but also the legions of highly militarized border armies being deployed to stop them.
Todd Miller investigates how environmental crises are creating millions of climate refugees who are challenging the developed world’s borders and resources. Miller explores how a sense of threat in the United States is giving rise to high-tech surveillance fortresses and fueling calls for an ever-expanding border wall. He passionately makes the case for ecological restoration, not border militarization, as the best way to achieve sustainability and security.
For the past fifteen years Todd Miller has researched, written about, and worked on immigration and border issues from both sides of the U.S. Mexico divide. Between Tucson and the Buffalo/Niagara Falls region of New York State where he grew up, he has spent the majority of his life close to the U.S. international boundary, south and north. He is the author of Border Patrol Nation (City Lights, 2014), and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Tom Dispatch, Mother Jones, The Nation, Al Jazeera English, and Salon.
A presentation by Todd Miller on his new book, sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program and Political Science Department will be held on Thursday, November 2nd from 2:00 – 3:30pm in St. Vincent’s Hall, room 407. All are welcome! Light refreshments will be served.