Pengungsi Pecas Ndahe
Mei 14, 2007 § 8 Komentar
Pabrik saya kedatangan tamu siang tadi. Namanya David Lazarus, Direktur Unic-Jakarta yang baru.
Mas Lazarus itu mantan jurnalis yang sudah berkeliling dunia. Ia sebetulnya orang Malaysia, tapi pernah tinggal di Kanada, juga Nigeria, dan bertugas di seantero belahan dunia lain, sampai akhirnya direkrut Perserikatan Bangsa-Bangsa untuk ditempatkan di Jakarta.
Dalam obrolan singkat yang hangat, dia bercerita tentang tugasnya di Indonesia, rencananya untuk mengenal persoalan Indonesia lebih dekat, dan sebagainya. Ia juga menyebut-nyebut tentang sesuatu yang baru saya dengar: Environmental Refugee.
Pengungsi korban lingkungan? Halah, opo maneh iki?
Karena penasaran, saya langsung bertanya kepadanya, apa yang dimaksud dengan istilah itu. Ternyata ini sebetulnya bukan isu baru. Mas Lazarus, katanya, bahkan pernah menuliskan sebuah artikelnya beberapa tahun yang silam. Tapi, karena saya memang “kuper”, tetap saja ndak dong.
Untung Mas Lazarus penuh pengertian dan saya penuh keingintahuan … 😀
Keingintahuan saya menemukan definisi ini:
An environmental refugee is a person displaced owing to environmental causes, notably land loss and degradation, and natural disaster — OECD.
Mas Lazarus menyebut contoh pengungsi lingkungan itu misalnya warga Aceh yang terpaksa meninggalkan kampung karena tsunami, wong Jogja yang dilanda gempa, juga penduduk Porong yang rumahnya terendam lumpur itu.
Paham, Ki Sanak?
[KORBAN — Seorang warga korban perubahan lingkungan di sebuah sudut dunia]
Nah, setelah riset ke sana kemari, menyusuri jagading lelembut tanpa batas ini, saya baru tahu bahwa jumlah pengungsi lingkungan itu lumayan banyak.
Even conservative estimates for the progress of global warming suggest that many millions will be forced to move due to environmental causes in coming years. Global warming, in particular, is set to drastically increase the problem. Managing the issue has been hampered to date by the failure of the international community to properly monitor environmental refugees …
One of the most recent estimates of the problem suggested that 25 million people worldwide were uprooted for environmental reasons – compared to 22 million displaced by civil wars and persecution. Another estimate suggests that by the year 2050, there could be 150 million displaced by a cocktail of ecological ‘push factors’. — New Economic Foundation.
Lalu saya baca sumber lain seperti Environment About. Di situ tertulis:
Scholars are predicting that 50 million people worldwide will be displaced by 2010 because of rising sea levels, desertification, dried up aquifers, weather-induced flooding and other serious environmental changes.
Di masa depan, kerusakan lingkungan akan semakin mengancam penduduk dunia dan meningkatkan jumlah pengungsi.
Such migrations may grow dramatically in future:
* Among many global problem sites, Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, has doubled its population on average every six years since 1972 and now stands at 900,000. The aquifer on which the city depends is falling by 6 meters a year, and may be exhausted by 2010, according to the World Bank.
* In China, the Gobi desert expands more than 10,000 square kilometers per year, threatening many villages. Oxford-based expert Norman Myers says Morocco, Tunisia and Libya each lose over 1,000 square kilometers of productive land annually to desertification.
* In Egypt, half of irrigated croplands suffer from salinization, while in Turkey 160,000 square kilometers of farmlands is affected by soil erosion.
* In the United States, Louisiana now loses roughly 65 square kilometers per year to erosion by the sea, while in Alaska 213 communities are threatened by tides that creep roughly 3 meters further inland each year.
* The low-lying Pacific island state of Tuvalu has struck an agreement with New Zealand to accept its 11,600 citizens in the event rising sea levels swamp the country.
* By one rough estimate, as many as 100 million people worldwide live in areas below sea level and/or are subject to storm surge.
Oleh sebab itu, masalah lingkungan harus ditangani sedini mungkin dan dunia internasional harus bekerja sama membantu mengatasi para pengungsi korban lingkungan.
Environmental refugees should be officially recognised and protected by the international community … It argues that in a world of growing interdependency – where environmental problems have no respect for borders and nation states – such a move is an essential response to a mounting and unavoidable crisis.
Tapi, rupanya kenyataan menunjukkan lain.
… but “environmental refugees” receive no such aid because they are not yet recognized in world conventions.
Oalah, pantes. Tapi, mosok ndak ada yang bisa kita lakukan buat mereka, Ki Sanak? Menurut sampean piye?
Ndoro Kakung 
lha mestinya para petinggi punya rencana kan ndoro, batur manut bendorone!
sudahkah mas Lazarus perlu diajak ke Lumpur Lapindo ?
lantas, pengungsi korban lingkungan menjadi pengungsi korban perasaan juga ya ndoro?
ayoo..ndang podo nang porong, nilik i sing kerendem lumpur.
kayaknya aku juga pengungsi deh ndoro. terjebak ke planet yang tak aku mengerti blas…
Tapi ndoro, kadang kalau berjuang dilevel atas, kita malah dicap tidak down to earth. Piye itu solusinya?
komen apa ya? berbuat? saya bisanya memaki doang…
termasuk yg di lapindo itu kah? nggak la ya…