The Century of Climate Migration: Why We Need to Plan for the Great Upheaval
Vince, Gaia. The Guardian , August 18, 2022.
This article discusses the role of climate change in creating migration and refugees. The article discusses the challenges that the world will face, particularly the global north, in dealing with an influx of people due to the loss of inhabitable land. This is particularly relevant since the UN International Organization for Migration has estimated that there will be as many as 1 billion environmental migrants in the next 30 years, while more recent projections point to 1.2 billion by 2050, and 1.4 billion by 2060.
The article also looks at several regions experiencing an exodus of people leaving other areas such as coastal Bangladesh due to climate change. It primarily focuses on how this movement of people could play out and affect the global order. The article discusses how this migration to physically higher regions and more urbanised areas could be a solution to the global north’s workforce issue due to the aging populations.
However, the author also warns about the potential catastrophe that could result from climate migration as states attempt to protect their boarders from migrants. The article gives a good overview of the topic and works through interesting thoughts about the future of climate migration. Its latter part is more heavily dominated by the author’s own ideas about migration policy; it might have been better to build arguments from objective facts, but Vince’s ideas are interesting nonetheless. This is an interesting article which looks at the practicalities of climate change and the ensuing refugee crisis which has already begun.