Environmental migrants are people forced to migrate away from their homeland due to sudden or long-term changes to their local environment. When the migration is considered to be forced and not a matter of choice, the term environmental refugee is also used. Additionally, if the causes for the migration are believed to be due to global warming related environmental disasters, the term climate refugee is sometimes used.
The ‘environmental migrant’ is a controversial concept which has increased in currency and generated considerable discussion in the 2000s as policy-makers, environmental and social scientists attempt to conceptualise the potential societal ramifications of climate change and general environmental degradation.
Some causes for environmental migration are increased droughts, desertification, sea level rise, and disruption of seasonal weather patterns such as monsoons. A statistically significant correlation between migration and environmental degradation including climate change has now been established by several research studies.
In the World Disasters Report 2001 published by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, more people are now forced to leave their homes because of environmental disasters than war. They estimate approximately 25 million people could currently be classified as being environmental refugees.
Some of the recent cases in history for climate change refugees include:
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In 1995, half of Bhola Island in Bangladesh became permanently flooded, leaving 500,000 people homeless. The Bhola Islanders have been described as some of the world’s first climate refugees. In 2007, a Bangladeshi scientist stated: "We’re already seeing hundreds of thousands of climate refugees moving into slums in Dhaka." These refugees were fleeing flooded coastal areas.
The inhabitants of the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea are also among the first climate refugees due to sea level rise attributed to global warming and climate change. Other inhabitants of low lying islands and Island states, are also at risk. Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Maldives are especially susceptible to changes in sea level and storm surges.
In Alaska, the village of Shishmaref, located on the 100 km long barrier island of Sarichef, also faces evacuation as rising temperatures cause the melting of sea ice and the thawing of the permafrost.
Across Africa desertification and a consequent decline in agricultural output is displacing increasingly large amounts of people. An estimated 10 million people within Africa have been forced to migrate over the last two decades due to desertification or environmental degradation.
The UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security hascorrectly predicted that by end 2010, there will be 50 million ‘environmentally displaced people’, most of whom will be women and children.
Australian climate scientist Dr. Graeme Pearman has predicted that a 2°C rise in temperature would place 100 million people ‘directly at risk from coastal flooding’ by 2100.