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When my father was dying in July 2009 and decided to set up the Bacon Center for the Study of Climate Displacement at Refugees International (RI), my sister, Katie, and I sat down with him to talk about what he wanted the center to be and do. The first thing he said was, "I have always tried to be fair in all that I do."

This is the philosophy of Refugees International, too. Whether uprooted by war, ethnic cleansing, political persecution, or natural resource scarcity, RI fights to help get the displaced and vulnerable home or to a safer place.

As the earth's complex climate subtly shifts, it promises more extreme events. We learned with Hurricane Katrina and the recent floods in Pakistan that floods, droughts, hurricanes and typhoons can be catastrophic.

RI held its first event on Climate Displacement, called “Pakistan: Hopes Submerged, Resilience Remains,” in New York on November 15. The event included a panel discussion on the impact of the summer flash floods in Pakistan with Alice Thomas, the director of the new Bacon Center for the Study of Climate Displacement, as well as Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, Chairman of FTI Global Affairs and former UN Deputy Secretary-General, Her Majesty Queen Noor, and RI President Michel Gabaudan.

Eight months after the Swat Valley floods instantaneously displaced over 20 million Pakistanis, rendering seven million homeless, an audience of lifelong diplomats and humanitarians, climate change professionals, and others concerned with displacement were reminded by Lord Malloch-Brown just how precarious the state of Pakistan has been since its inception in 1940. Calling Pakistan a military with a state, Lord Malloch-Brown criticized the United States for its defense-centric aid, which runs to the tune of $15 billion. Lord Malloch-Brown's comments underscored the importance of tipping the balance of aid back towards meeting humanitarian needs.

HM Queen Noor, who's been to the region numerous times, spoke of the continuing trauma civilians face on the ground. In 2007, she recounted, the Taliban began to terrorize people and blow up schools and public buildings; in 2009, the Pakistani army came to drive out the militants, forcing over 3 million people to flee to avoid the conflict. Then, just when many of these people had just started to return, the floods came. RI has worked closely with congressional leaders and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's office in the past to ensure that humanitarian aid and rehabilitation projects in Pakistan are delivered fairly. And after the floods, RI has continued to call on U.S. leaders to direct assistance at the most vulnerable sectors of society.

And yet, in spite of losing their houses, bridges, and electricity, Alice told us, the Swat valley people had an irrepressible need to go home. So great was this instinct that the humanitarian camps were empty of Pakistanis. Only NGOs were there.  RI, instead, went to the riverbed to talk with civilians. They learned that the humanitarian system in place is neither prepared nor equipped to deal with the impact of the floods on Pakistani security. Alice and Renata Rendon, RI’s Congressional Advocate, spent two weeks meeting with government, UN, and NGO officials while traveling to flood-affected areas to interview people.

Should people be permitted to rebuild homes in at-risk areas? Should zoning be restructured to prevent river bank encroachment? How can the international community better prepare for disaster risk? These are just some of the questions in the Gordian knot where rights meet climate displacement.

My father believed that Refugees International should be among the first NGOs to tackle this global humanitarian conundrum, and I believe it is.



Sarah Bacon is daughter of former RI President Ken Bacon. She is the founder and producer of an environmental online radio show, "Now or Never," www.noworneverradio.org, and a candidate for a Masters of Science in Sustainability Management at Columbia's Earth Institute.