One Billion Climate Change Refugees by 2050

Water shortages, crop failures and resulting conflicts will force more than a billion people from their homes -- and the world has barely started to prepare for the crisis.

That's the bottom line of a report released by nonprofit group Christian Aid, who say that "a world of many more Darfurs is the increasingly likely nightmare scenario" of climate change coupled with an inadequate international response. (The genocide in the Sudan has been traced to drought.)

While the situation in Darfur has received a lot of media attention, most other recent coverage has focused on economic migrants and asylum seekers, says the report.

'We hear a lot about people trying to come to Europe and other rich countries. But the real crisis is developing a long way away and remains largely unreported,' adds Davison. [...]

'Tens of millions of the poorest people in the poorest parts of the world are uprooted and lack basic assistance and protection. They are the world's voiceless and often inaccessible refugees,' says McNamara.
'As Christian Aid's welcome new report says, their numbers can destabilise whole regions and may be an obstacle to building peace.
Their problems must be urgently addressed, both for humanitarian as well political and security reasons.'

That the United States and the international community has barely started to prepare for climate change refugees boggles the mind.
The causes can be argued, but the climate is clearly changing -- and a billion displaced people means war, disease and economic instability that will affect everyone. Not being ready for them is morally unacceptable and, in purely self-interested terms, stupid.

World facing worst migration crisis [Christian Aid]

Charity warns of migration crisis [BBC]

Image: Mark Knobil