Global warming could create 150 million 'climate refugees' by 2050

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Global warming will force up to 150 million "climate refugees" to move to other countries in the next 40 years, a new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) warns.

In 2008 alone, more than 20 million people were displaced by climate-related natural disasters, including 800,000 people by cyclone Nargis in Asia, and almost 80,000 by heavy floods and rains in Brazil, the NGO said.

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The EJF claimed 500 million to 600 million people – nearly 10% of the world's population – are at risk from displacement by climate change. Around 26 million have already had to move, a figure that the EJF predicts could grow to 150 million by 2050. "The majority of these people are likely to be internally displaced, migrating only within a short radius from their homes. Relatively few will migrate internationally to permanently resettle in other countries," said the report's authors.

In the longer term, the report said, changes to weather patterns will lead to various problems, including desertification and sea-level rises that threaten to inundate low-lying areas and small island developing states. An expert at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris recently said global warming could create "ghost states" with citizens living in "virtual states" due to land lost to rising seas

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/global-warming-climate-refugees

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The report is available here: http://www.ejfoundation.org/page92.html

[lapfog_1]

1. Bullshit.

By 2050, people moving because of climate change will likely number over a billion.

[Uncle Joe]

2. When do you ever hear the fossil fuel lovers take that kind of cost in to account?

Whether it be current day or projected future cost?

Thanks for the thread, Turborama.