2 September 2022

#AntarcticLog: (Climate) refugees

Posted by Shane Hanlon

#AntarcticLog is a series of comics by Karen Romano Young. You can find the originals here.

More than the population of Australia. That’s how many people the United Nations Refugee Agency says are refugees. These numbers are unimaginable, inconceivable, and overwhelming. 

What makes them both comprehensible and confounding? Seeing individual journeys firsthand. Maybe it’s a quartet of young men adrift in an endless sea. 

Maybe it’s witnessing the journey of a girl who’s actually a well-tended puppet

Or maybe it’s observing the work of children planting trees — one child to one tree — and wondering how, in the face of Pakistan’s massive flooding this week, those kids are doing. 

I think it’s interesting that Pakistan — one of the countries most threatened by climate change — is in the top five for taking in refugees from other lands. 

And I hope for a future where humanitarian goals take precedence over economic or political ones. Thanks for reading. 

Karen Romano Young is a writer, artist, deep-sea diver, and polar explorer. Follow her on Twitter & Instagram.