"I think that you have to assume that because of climate change, there are going be a lot more refugees," Clinton said.
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| A displaced family in Africa. |
Rising sea levels, desertification and shrinking freshwater supplies will create up to 50 million environmental refugees by the end of the decade, experts warn today. Janos Bogardi, director of the Institute for Environment and Human Security at the United Nations University in Bonn, said creeping environmental deterioration already displaced up to 10 million people a year, and the situation would get worse. "There are well-founded fears that the number of people fleeing untenable environmental conditions may grow exponentially as the world experiences the effects of climate change," Dr Bogardi said. "This new category of refugee needs to find a place in international agreements. We need to better anticipate support requirements, similar to those of people fleeing other unviable situations." - The Guardian.In June of this year, The Guardian also reported on an updated statement from the UN, indicating that the number of displaced people around the world had hit a 15-year high.
Here's Merchant's blog on Clinton's views on what is shaping up to be a monumental crisis.The number of forcibly displaced people around the world has reached a 15-year high, according to the UN high commission for refugees (UNHCR), with the vast majority languishing in poor countries ill-equipped to cater to their needs. The UNHCR’s 2010 trends report estimated that there were 43.7 million refugees and people displaced within their country by events such as war and natural disasters at the end of last year. More than half of the total is children. The figure does not take into account the new wave of migration set in train by the upheaval of the Arab spring. The figure breaks down into a global total of 15.4 million refugees, 27.5 million internally displaced people and a further 840,000 people waiting to be given refugee status. The 48-page report also reveals that there has been a fall in the number of returning refugees to 197,600, the lowest in two decades. This has resulted in the number of long-term refugees in “protracted situations” making up almost half of the total of all refugees, the highest number for a decade. The report puts the blame for this on “humanitarian crises and the political situation in a number of countries”. However, there has been a slight dip in the total number of refugees worldwide on 2009 levels. The agency has also estimated that there are 12 million stateless people around the world.
2011 Refugees statistics map.
Some of the most dramatic impacts of climate change will be felt by the millions of people who will be forced to leave their homes: Climate refugees will flee island nations rendered inhospitable by rising sea levels, arid regions increasingly wracked by drought, and wet, low-lying areas that grow ever more prone to flooding. The international system that currently works to find refugees new homes will likely be overloaded as this occurs -- we won't be able to deal with so many mass exoduses at once. That's why Bill Clinton thinks we need to overhaul the current system to deal with climate refugees. At a roundtable meeting with Clinton and a handful of other writers as part of the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative, I asked the 42nd President what he thought of current refugee policy in the face of our changing climate.Of course, if you have been an ardent reader of my website and have been following my thoughts on the cyclic cataclysmic event of Death and Rebirth, then you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see that these Earth changes and the dramatic effects that results from it, will be used in the Thesis/Anti-Thesis/Synthesis towards a New World Order of the Ages, which is really what the Clinton Global Initiative is all about.
"I think that you have to assume that because of climate change, there are going be a lot more refugees," Clinton said. "And that the laws which exist, and the systems of support that exist, not just the US but elsewhere, were basically built for a different time when you might have a surge of refugees from this country or a surge from that country, because of a particular political upheaval or a particular natural disaster. And that's almost certainly going to not work now. I think that in general we should become more open to immigration again," Clinton said. "Keeping people in limbo is a waste of human potential." - Desdemona Despair.
We go in circles and circles, but our elliptical orbit, always seems to take us right back to the same place and agenda. Doesn't it?













