CLIMATE refugees are people who have been forcibly displaced as a result of environmental factors caused by climate change and natural disasters. Every year since 2008, 26.4 million people have been forced to leave their countries due to extraordinary weather events such as typhoons, tsunamis, flooding and natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. (When people seek refuge within their own countries as environmental refugees, they are commonly referred to as internally displaced persons).

Scientific studies revealed rising seas will supplant encroaching deserts and other forms of land degradation as the major threat to habitability of many places this century. The evacuation of 1,400 residents of Papua New Guinea’s Carteret Islands (the world’s first climate refugees, according to the United Nations) due to rising sea levels offers a sobering vision of the future for coastal populations.

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