Millions of Environmental Refugees Stuck in Limbo

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/13683/the_rising_tide_environmental_refugees


Some experts believe that by 2050, environmental catastrophes with have displaced 150 million people, such as the refugees from Haiti's 2010 earthquake. (The U.S. Army / Flickr / Creative Commons)

***SNIP

Not Recognized, Not Counted

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.

Experts at last year's American Association for the Advancement of Science estimated their numbers would reach 50 million by 2020, due to factors such as agricultural disruption, deforestation, coastal flooding, shoreline erosion, industrial accidents and pollution.