A woman queues for water at an NGO funded borehole at Lodwar, 500 kilometres north-east of Nairobi, Kenya.Photo: AFP
John Vidal in London
May 15, 2007
A BILLION people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.
The report, based on the latest United Nations population and climate-change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, South Asia and the Middle East.
The report, published yesterday, cited case studies in Sudan, Colombia, Mali and Burma as big causes for concern.
According to the development charity, the world faces its largest movement of people forced from their homes.
"Forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor nations," said the report's lead author, John Davison. "Climate change is the great, frightening unknown in this equation."...
A BILLION people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.
The report, based on the latest United Nations population and climate-change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, South Asia and the Middle East.
The report, published yesterday, cited case studies in Sudan, Colombia, Mali and Burma as big causes for concern.
According to the development charity, the world faces its largest movement of people forced from their homes.
"Forced migration is now the most urgent threat facing poor nations," said the report's lead author, John Davison. "Climate change is the great, frightening unknown in this equation."...
