http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/10/24/migration-in-the-face-of-global-environmental-change/ Tapping experts in climate, geology, oceanography, ecology, sustainable development, global health, energy, food and water, State of the Planet captures stories of how the Earth works and how we can sustainably make our lives better. Thu, 23 May 2013 13:26:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/10/24/migration-in-the-face-of-global-environmental-change/comment-page-1/#comment-26604 D. Whitman Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:04:32 +0000 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=19366#comment-26604 Environmental change has a multiplier effect on other drivers of migration, such as economic hardship and crop failure. Yet terms such as “environmental refugees” and “climate refugees” may cause more problems than they solve. Neither category has status under international law. In the case of small island nations, there is an additional obstacle: If a whole state becomes submerged or uninhabitable, and there is no prospect of return, temporary refuge will not be enough. As Bogumil Terminski pionted in “Environmentally Induced Migrations” there is a huge conceptual difference between “environmental migrants” and “environmental refugees”. Accirding to this author environmental migrant is a persons making a short-lived, cyclical, or longerterm change of residence, of a voluntary or forced character, due to specific environmental factors. Environmental refugees, therefore, are people compelled to spontaneous, short-lived, cyclical, or longer-term changes of residence due to sudden or gradually worsening changes in environmental factors important to their living, which may be of either a short-term or an irreversible character. As the evidence for global environmental change has accumulated over the past decade, academics, policymakers, and the media have given more attention to the issue of “environmental refugees.” A major concern is whether environmental change will displace large numbers of vulnerable people in the developing world, particularly from rural areas where livelihoods are especially dependent on climate and natural resources. A widely cited article estimated that more than 25 million people were displaced by environmental factors in 1995

]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/10/24/migration-in-the-face-of-global-environmental-change/comment-page-1/#comment-24693 Unsettled by Climate Change – State of the Planet Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:02:09 +0000 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=19366#comment-24693 [...] of people to migrate in the future. (The CIESIN team contributed to that report, and de Sherbinin blogged about it on State of the Planet the other day. There’s a piece about it in the current Nature as well.) [...]

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