Climate Refugee Threat in Tropics Rises, International Action Lags

There is no easy way to put it – the tropics can expect an apocalyptic future not of their making. Severe storms, droughts and rising seas will pose water and food shortages, unrest, conflicts over territory. More desperate refugees are anticipated from a region where more than two thirds of the world’s poor live. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees dismisses massive international migrations because of the high poverty rates, instead anticipating internal migration, impromptu adaptation and destabilization. The international community demonstrates little urgency on climate change, argues Roxane Horton for World Politics Review: “Despite the likelihood of growing numbers of climate refugees, there is no international legal recognition of such a group, even if the term ‘environmental refugees’ has been in use since the 1970s; the International Organization for Migration estimates that there could be as many as 200 million such refugees by 2050.” Avoiding the slowly unfolding disaster won’t make it go away. – YaleGlobal