Spotlight: Environmental Migration in Ecuador and Indonesia

Clark L. Gray, a geographer and postdoctoral researcher at Duke University, has been adding to the sorely needed field of evidence-based research on environment and migration, with emphases on Ecuador and Indonesia, since 2008. His dissertation, “Out-Migration and Rural Livelihoods in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes,” a winner of the Nystrom Dissertation Award, was the first [...]

Who Counts as a “Climate Refugee”?

(The New Republic) January 4, 2010 – Joanna Kakissis has a nicely reported piece in The New York Times today on climate-driven migration in developing countries. The concept’s pretty simple: As the planet heats up, many regions are expected to see more frequent (and more severe) floods, droughts, and storms, which will uproot a bunch [...]

Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific

(PreventionWeb) This draft study discusses how climate change is likely to influence population displacement, migration and settlement patterns and examines how this will impact development in five sub-regions of Asia and the Pacific. It argues that if migration due to climate change is managed effectively, humanitarian crises will be minimized, conflicts avoided, and countries can [...]

Vietnam Finds Itself Vulnerable if Sea Rises

(New York Times) September 23, 2009 – CAI RANG, Vietnam – For centuries, as monsoon rains, typhoons and wars have swept over them and disappeared into the sunshine, the farmers and fishermen of the Mekong Delta have drawn life from the water and fertile fields where the great river ends its 2,700-mile journey to the [...]

One Million Displaced as Typhoon Morakot Slams Into China

(CNN) August 10, 2009 – A deadly typhoon that slammed into China’s coastal provinces and Taiwan over the weekend has displaced nearly one million people and left dozens missing, state-run media reported Monday. High winds and torrential rain of Typhoon Morakot hit coastal provinces Fujian and Zhejian hardest, and caused the worst flooding in decades [...]

New Oxfam Report Warns of 75 Million Asia-Pacific Environmental Migrants

(Oxfam Australia) July 27, 2009 – An Oxfam Australia report published today highlights the urgent need for next week’s Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns to address the dramatic effects of climate change within the region. The Future is Here: Climate Change in the Pacific finds that Pacific Islanders are already feeling the effects of climate [...]