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Climate Change Link To Massive Numbers Of Displaced People …

  • June 9th, 2011
  • Posted by EUEditor

displaced-jun-11.jpgThe report identifying 42 million people forced to leave their homes by natural disasters, last year, from the Norwegian Refugee Council, says it is getting worse because of climate change.

NUMBERS HAVE DOUBLED

The document, called Displacement due to natural hazard-induced disasters: Global estimates for 2009 and 2010, was published in Geneva by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre – an off-shoot of the Norwegian non-governmental organisation.

It says the numbers driven out by sudden events including floods, cyclones and earthquakes were more than double what the Earth experienced a few years before.

The number of disasters each year also doubled, from some  200 to over 400, over the last 20 years, and they were overwhelmingly caused by climate-related hazards.

CLIMATE CHANGE LINK

The publishers said human induced climate change, (impacts especially of  carbon dioxide released into the air, from industry and many other sources), was likely to cause further large increases in people dislocated from their homes.

Main events cited in 2010 were the great floods in China and Pakistan, and the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre says many who have to flee from their homes remain in a state of “protracted displacement, disadvantaged and unable to fully enjoy their rights.”

“Governments and the international community have tended to favour return over local integration and settlement elsewhere”, it says, but often attempted solutions fail, and millions  – currently over 27-million people- are left where they are in temporary settlement areas.

floods-gov1.jpgThe chain of extreme weather events, coupled with earthquakes and volcanoes last year, extended into 2011.

The impact of floods in eastern Australia, and two large cyclones, resulted in a 1.2% drop in Gross Domestic Product in the March quarter, whereas the economy had weathered the 2008 global financial crisis without slipping into recession.

The disasters which wrecked homes and livelihoods left huge claims on insurance funds, and relief projects set up by governments and through private subscriptions.

See EUAustralia Online, 2010:”Pakistan floods: call for more aid”, 18.8.11; “Russia fires …”, 3.8.10; “Atlantic fury”, 1.3.10; “Chile earthquake: offer of helping hands”, 28.2.10; “Madeira losses”, 22.2.10.

Reference

Kaja Haldorsen, “42 million displaced by sudden natural disasters in 2010”, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oslo, 6.6.11. http://www.nrc.no/?did=9570125, (9.6.11).

Report: Displacement due to natural hazard-induced disasters: Global estimates for 2009 and 2010 (2011), Geneva, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. http://www.internal-displacement.org/, (9.6.11).

Pictures     NRC, gov.au