International Affairs: April 2011 Archives

Missing Climate Refugees

In 2008 the United Nations predicted that global warming would create 50 million "climate refugees" by 2010.

In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme predicted that climate change would create 50 million climate refugees by 2010. These people, it was said, would flee a range of disasters including sea level rise, increases in the numbers and severity of hurricanes, and disruption to food production.
The UNEP even provided a handy map. The map shows us the places most at risk including the very sensitive low lying islands of the Pacific and Caribbean.

It so happens that just a few of these islands and other places most at risk have since had censuses, so it should be possible for us now to get some idea of the devastating impact climate change is having on their populations. Let’s have a look at the evidence: ...

Needless to say, the "at risk" regions have some of the world's fastest growing populations.

(HT: James Taranto.)