Since 2009, an estimated one person every second has been displaced by a disaster, with an average of 22.5 million people displaced by climate- or weather-related events since 2008 (IDMC 2015). Disasters and slow onsets, such as droughts in Somalia in 2011 and 2012, floods in Pakistan between 2010 and 2012, and the earthquake in Nepal in 2015, can leave huge numbers of people traumatized without shelter, clean water and basic supplies.

A climate refugee is an individual who has been forced to flee their home due to the effects of climate change and global warming. With higher temperatures driving an increase in extreme weather events and generally making the world a less hospitable place, mass global migration and border conflicts are increasing. Where the forest used to be, torrential rains bring barren hills of mud down on villages. Crops wither in the parched earth. Animals die. Melting glaciers and a rising sea swallow islands and low-lying nations, flooding rice fields with salt water. Factories spew toxic chemicals into rivers and oceans, killing fish and the livelihood of generations.  So people flee. Many become internally displaced, others cross any and all borders in order to survive. Unfortunately, many of them discover that their skills, such as herding and farming, are no longer useful after they have relocated, making it difficult to find work.

It?s already well known that climate change is not an equal-opportunity threat, with its impacts on food production, severe storms, and drought, among others, hitting the world?s poorest nations the hardest. And as we?ve learned, global warming isn?t gender-blind either: Women are especially vulnerable to its effects, making up a shocking 80 percent of climate refugees. Female climate refugees also face unique dangers, including sexual violence and pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality. And in the chaos of displacement, child abuse and neglect, intimate partner violence, and exploitation and trafficking typically spike. Following the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines, Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua, and the Loma Prieta Earthquake in the U.S., the WHO reported that rates of intimate partner violence increased significantly. Likewise, reports from the Sri Lanka and Indonesia following the Asian Tsunami focused on concerns over the protection of women from sexual violence.

The issue of climate change is yet another reason to find solutions to climate change. Climate change is not a future threat, it is something real and is affecting millions of people globally now. The effects of this are set to worsen in our lifetime.

Sources

https://publichealthwatch.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/5-things-you-should-know-about-climate-refugees/

http://www.unhcr.org/climate-change-and-disasters.html

https://fepsfreshthinking.blogactiv.eu/2015/11/30/cop21solutionsclimatechangerefugees/