The World Daily
Climate disasters displaced 10 million in half a year

Photo:Reuters

 

By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | MARCH 17th 2021

 

Over the course of the last six months, well over 10.3 million people had suffered displacement from their homes due to certain weather disasters found to be related to climate change, according to a recent study.

The recent figures, gathered over the course of a six-month period from September 2020 to February 2021, reveal a shocking number of displacements in relation to climate change, through events such as draughts, floods, powerful storms and resulting conflicts.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) stated that about 2.3 million others had been displaced by conflict throughout this period as well. What this implies is that there’s now a larger number of displacements being caused by climate-related complications than by global conflicts.

“Things are getting worse as climate change aggravates existing factors like poverty, conflict, and political instability,” said Helen Brunt, Asia Pacific Migration and Displacement Coordinator for the IFRC. “The compounded impact makes recovery longer and more difficult: people barely have time to recover and they’re slammed with another disaster.”

An average of 22.7 million people end up displaced on an annual basis, according to Statistics from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The majority of these are caused by events of extreme or unusual weather.

The report from the IFRC included that at least around 60% of all those who had been internally displaced throughout the studied period of the last 6 months were in Asia. Climate-related disasters in Asian regions were observed to have been particularly disastrous across this time.

According to the McKinsey & Co consulting firm, Asia “stands out as being more exposed to physical climate risks than other parts of the world in the absence of adaptation and mitigation.”

 

Further statistics from the IDMC have revealed that in in 2018, 17.2 million people had been globally displaced, which rose to a far more shocking 24.9 million people in the following year of 2019. Though there are no figures yet available for the year of 2020, it’s presumed that this number will see yet another rise as the mid-year report from IDMC revealed that there had been 9.8 million displacements accounted for in that year, on behalf of climate-related disasters.

All of these statistics and reports may reveal continually worsening conditions over the coming years, as a previous report from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) had speculated that 1 billion people may come to be facing forced migration by 2050.

“This will have huge social and political impacts, not just in the developing world, but also in the developed, as mass displacement will lead to larger refugee flows to the most developed countries,” said Steve Killelea, founder of IEP.

With the likelihood of climate conditions worsening throughout the years, it’s fully expected that the number of people getting displaced worldwide will increase. This, along with factors of what Killelea described as 60% less fresh water available worldwide in comparison to 50 years ago, and a forecast 50% increase in food demand, all indicate that unless something is done about the threat of climate change, the a large death toll may follow.

 

By Patryk Krych | © The World Daily 2021

 

 

Categories:
Environment
Tags:
Climate ChangeHumanitarian CrisisMigration CrisisNatural Disasters