over 20 million climate refugees
Submitted by antarchi on September 24, 2009 - 21:20
At least 36 million people were displaced by sudden-onset natural disasters in 2008. Of those, over 20 million were displaced by sudden-onset climate-related disasters. As a reference, the total population of people living in forced displacement due to conflict, including IDPs and refugees, was 42 million in 2008, with 4.6 million having been newly internally displaced during the year. It is likely that many more are displaced due to the other climate change-related drivers, including slow-onset disasters, such as drought and sea level rise...
Asia was the region most affected, accounting for 31 million of those displaced by sudden onset disasters. Of the 20 disasters that caused most displacement in 2008, 17 were in Asia.
Note: the frequency of recorded natural disasters has doubled from approximately 200 to over 400 per year over the past two decades
