The article 100 billion displaced by 2050 appeared in The Australian on 14th May which explained findings from a British based Christian Aid report revelaing that in the next four decades as many as 100 billion people will have to flee their homes due to the effects of global warming such as natural disasters.
This report noted that the displacement will be “”the largest population displacement in modern history” and that the poorest in the world would be the majoirty of those who would be forced to migrate.
“We believe that forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor people in the developing world,” said John Davison, author of Human Tide: the real migration crisis.
While the figure was already “staggeringly high”, the report warned that “in future, climate change will push it even higher.
“We estimate that over the years between now and 2050, a total of one billion people will be displaced from their homes,” the 52-page report said.
Currently there is an estaimted 163 million people worldwide which are already displaced by factors such as flooding, drought and conflict.
” The figures include 645 million who will migrate because of development projects, and 250 million because of phenomena linked to global warming like floods, droughts and famine, it said.”
Further implications will include security threats;
“Security experts fear that this new migration will fuel existing conflicts and generate new ones in the areas of the world – the poorest – where resources are most scarce,” said a statement accompanying the report.
The report forces me to question the validity of the targets set at the Climate Summit of the 60% reduction by 2050. The report reveals that approx. by the same year in 2050 there will be 100 billion migrants……..is it all a little too late.
