Coming in 2020: 50 Million Environmental Refugees

Coming in 2020: 50 Million Environmental Refugees
"In 2020, the UN has projected that we will have 50 million environmental refugees," declared of California, Los Angeles professor Cristina Tirado at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). "When people are not living in sustainable conditions, they migrate," she continued.
In 2001 Norman Myers of Oxford University called environmental refugees as a "new phenomenon." Myers described them as "people who can no longer gain a secure livelihood in their homelands because of drought, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and other environmental problems, together with the associated problems of population pressures and profound poverty." Myers added, "In their desperation, these people feel they have no alternative but to seek sanctuary elsewhere, however hazardous the attempt."
Given the projected amount of environmental refugees, the world does not have time to wait for a "bluer" U.S. congress to enact climate change legislation. However, there may be ways to combat climate change without the U.S. putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing black carbon (soot) and ozone levels "will slow the rate of climate change in the first half of the 21st century," according to a new report released in Nairobi Kenya by the UN Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization. read more...