Climate Change and Human Migration

Who is affected by climate change when it comes to migration?

• Shore based communities
• For example, San Francisco, CA, Key West Florida
• Island nations
• For example Tuvalu, and Kiribati, Island Nations found in the Pacific Ocean

Evidence

• According to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) around 150 million “environmental refugees” will exist in the year 2050, due to events like shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, and agricultural disruption.
• Furthermore, according the IPCC, small islands, faced with the threat of rising sea levels, will suffer from deterioration in coastal conditions, such as erosion, coral bleaching, and also the islands will suffer because if they have nothing to offer tourists, their economy will suffer as well as their land.

Shorebased Communities: Image

• “Coastal zones are particularly vulnerable to climate variability and change. Key concerns include sea level rise, land loss, changes in maritime storms and flooding, responses to sea level rise and implications for water resources “
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Why are they faced with the threat of migration?

• Glacier retreat
  • As glaciers melt due to the change in temperature, the chances of flash floods, landslides, and glacier overflows are increased.
  • Furthermore, the increase in glacier retreat causes the sea levels to rise as a result of the glaciers melting into the ocean.
• Rising sea levels
  • The IPCC predicts that global average sea level will rise between .6 and 2 feet in the next century
  • Moreover, rising sea levels erode beaches, intensify flooding, and destroy land used for agriculture and living.
• Loss of land
  • The loss of land not only affects agriculture, bus also affects the species that live in that land, for example, the wetlands.
  • The IPCC “suggests that by 2080, sea level rise could convert as much as 33 percent of the world’s coastal wetlands to open water.”
• Specifically Island nations are affected by climate change when it comes to migration because…
  • Island nations face the possibility of being flooded out by the rising sea levels.
  • For example, Tuvalu (too-vuh-loo, too-vah-loo) , a Polynesian island in the Pacific Ocean is already in the process of creating an evacuation plan when the times comes… hopefully it won’t.
  • Kiribati, an island nation in the central Pacific Ocean, is planning for a mass migration to New Zealand.

Conclusion

• Climate change effects human migration because as sea levels rise due to glacier retreat, the people living in those communities must migrate if they can not adapt. Furthermore, coastal communities and island nations suffer the most because they are closer to the water, and because their economy is usually dependent on the benefits of living near the shore. Some of the consequences of climate change include erosion of beaches, loss of land, and flooding due to a rise in sea level.