climate change causing migration?

Monday’s New York Times features an article exploring the report “In Search of Shelter,” released from a global climate summit in Bonn. “In Search of Shelter” details growing accounts of migration driven by climate change, and the resultant populations of displaced citizens. Times contributor Tom Zeller highlights the large communities in Asia that rely on the Himalayas to replenish rivers and provide drinking water. With those glaciers rapidly shrinking, millions of residents will eventually be without water and forced to relocate.

A common, and probably valid, fear is that impoverished communities—those with the fewest resources and heaviest reliance on the “whims of the weather”—will be the most severely impacted.

In large part, the concept of climate-induced migration is one met with contention and skepticism. After all, how can something so elusive be measured? A myriad of factors may be at play with any single decision to move, including political, economic, and familial considerations. Since it’s nearly impossible to isolate climate change as a catalyst for migration, the numbers surrounding the phenomenon are frustratingly inconsistent.

Still, environmental leaders worldwide are desperately trying to find empirical measurements for the phenomenon. Visit the New York Times for the full story and to read the complete “In Search of Shelter” report.

What do you predict will be the impact of climate migration?

related posts