Climatic migrations, until the end of the world

**This entry is posted on the number 9 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until February 25, 2025. **
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Who would not run away from a burning land, from a desert that is pretty, from a flooded city?
Who would not try to find the courage to leave his life and desperately reach an alternative? In a recent report published byInternational organization for migrationsthere is no room for the doubt: every year, in the last ten, about 21.6 million people have been forced to displaces forced due to climate catastrophes. They are often difficult to extrapolate with evidence, and migratory flows are constantly evolving. But there are images that are incontrovertible, there are stories that are there to testify waves of people forced to change their lives because of the adverse weather conditions.

«So, for example, the famous, the famous dzud: temperatures go down over 50 degrees below zero. The animals do not survive, they do not find eating or drinking and shepherds remain without livestock, which is their only sustenance ». The photographer tells him Alessandro Grassaniwho started, in 2011, his long project on climatic migration, which is exposed to Diocesan Museum of Milan in a large exhibition set up until April 27th: “When I started this work, little was talked about, today it has become a reality that can no longer be ignored.” In Mongolia many shepherds had to transfer and mostly they went to Ulan Bator, the capital: «They all went into a peripheral area, bringing their ghers, the typical circular world curtains. In the city, however, they do nothing, because in life they have not learned to do anything but the shepherds: so they did their grandparents, so their fathers and so they always made them. I remember one who had improvised taxi driver and within nothing he found himself involved in an accident from which he came out paralyzed. A tragic story. Unfortunately, many of the environmental migrants end up living in misery. These shepherds have lost their beasts and the earth and now have nothing anymore ».

And so it is not only in those parts between China and Russia: “I then went to all continents, where there are different critical issues, from the extreme drought in Africa to the rising sea level in Bangladesh, to the deforestation in Haiti, where The territory is no longer able to absorb torrential rains and floods are created ».

Alessandro has collected many stories, violent, painful, incredible in their crudeness: «Like that of Rose, in Kenya, escaped with his 5 children for the fear of the armed clashes between shepherds of different tribes, always ready to fight one l Other to grab the too small water resources. They are fighter shepherds, capable of killing in order not to give in a drop of water to others ». He saw weapons, scars, was common: «heaps of bodies, the result of the struggles between the Turkana tribe and that of the Pokot. The idea is simple: the less people are there, the more resources are available for those who survive. Rose was terrified of raising his children among that violence and preferred to move to Nairobi, Kibera, in that huge slum which today collects about 1 million people. She came from a wealthy family, and today, to feed her children, washes the clothes for the wealthy people of the city: in the morning she comes out, she procures a few cloths to clean, wash, dry and return. Every day the same, for a minimum sustenance, for her and her children ».

To find these environmental migrants Alessandro Grassani had to investigate a lot: «When I started this project, it was rare to meet NGO with projects dedicated to this problem. Fortunately, today something is moving, but more we must do more, because there is now no doubt that the climate is influencing the migratory phenomenon ». With everything that follows: “We create what has been renamed” Climatic Apartheid “, with an increasingly marked division between rich and poor. The wealthy people, who live in quiet contexts, are barricading within their own country. We look at Europe: after the Syrian crisis, kilometers of walls have built, between Greece and Macedonia, between Hungary and Bulgaria, there are many, all to stop the migratory flows that are becoming increasingly important “.

But a wall cannot keep on the other side neither climate change nor people and even those who feel safe in the most privileged areas, do not actually know how the wind will blow. «Let’s look at what happened in Los Angeles, at the mega villas of the rich, of those who probably feel unassailable. We look at the nearest Emilia Romagna, hit by the floods. Until people can put their homes in place? They can do it once, two, and then? Then maybe they will go from there. If before the environmental migrants were only in poor countries, now it may no longer be like this ». It is as if this project by Alessandro Grassani could not be concluded: «When I started working on this theme, things were put better than today. The problem is now becoming much bigger and it is difficult to focus on, understand how to work to change the situation. It is something temptular, global, that it touches us every day ». However, if he should choose the photo-guide, it would be the one he took at the beginning of his adventure: “There is a woman, a Pastora of Mongolia, who drags on an icy expanse a died sheep on a wooden cart. It is not known where he is going, he leaves an open question, because we do not know where this woman is able to arrive, but she, exhausted, started her journey that takes her elsewhere ».

Haiti, Center Department, Lake Azuéi.2015. A Young Man Washing on the Lakeshore of Lake Azuéi. The Growth Rate of Lake Azuéi is unparented: The Size of the Lake Has Almost Doubled in the Last 10 Years, Destroying and Submerging Homes and Farms. Trunks of Dead Palm Trees are all that remain. Scientists Point to the Changing Climate As the Main Culprit, with a Noted Rise Rise in Rainfall in the area, attribute to the warming in the carbbean Sea. Other scientists Focus on the effects of climate Change on underground Water Which can Also be responsible for the expansion of the Lake.Alessandro Grassani/Agentur Focu