climate migrant

The media tends to call all people fleeing from rising waters,  deepening droughts, and other adverse climate trends caused by climate change, climate refugees.

 But according to international law the only people who can be called refugees are those who are spurred on by a ‘well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’ (Art. 1, 1951 Refugee Convention).  The environment does not intentionally persecute people. So, it is argued, people fleeing the consequences of climate change should be referred to as climate migrants.

 Climate migration can be triggered in rural areas by the changing environment which makes past agricultural practices no longer possible, but also along densely populated coastal areas affected by rising seawaters. In 2018 there were 17.2 million people displaced by disasters caused by climate change.