The Borah Foundation & Symposium Presents: Climate Refugees

There is a new phenomenon in the global arena called "Climate Refugees." A climate refugee is a person displaced by climatically induced environmental disasters. Such disasters result from incremental and rapid ecological change, resulting in increased droughts, desertification, sea level rise, and the more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, cyclones, fires, mass flooding and tornadoes. All this is causing mass global migration and border conflicts. For the first time, the Pentagon now considers climate change a national security risk and the term climate wars is being talked about in war-room like environments in Washington D.C. Click here to learn more about the film. Free and open to the public The Symposium Since 1948, the Foundation has sponsored an annual program devoted to understanding the causes of war and the conditions for establishing a lasting peace. Many well known speakers have addressed the annual symposium or conference over the years including: Frank Church, Les Aspin, Thurgood Marshall, Benjamin Spock, Philip Habib, Al Gore Sr., William Kuntsler, Eugene McCarthy, Frances Moore-Lappe, Betty Williams, Andrei Codrescu, Stephen Jay Gould, and Arun Gandhi. Each symposium is planned by a faculty-student committee which determines each year?s topic, with office, meeting space, and administrative support provided by the Martin School of International Studies & Conflict Resolution. Over the years the Borah Foundation has sponsored a variety of educational programs and activities. In addition to the annual symposium, in recent years the Borah Committees have sponsored Borah mini-courses for University of Idaho students, established a special collection in the UI library with books about peace and conflict as well as volumes related to each year?s specific topic, begun a Borah International Peace Grove within the UI Arboretum with a tree planted each year, and in a number of years have sponsored an essay contest on peace and conflict resolution for both high school and college students.