World must prepare for mass climate migration, warns an NGO

Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: The International Organisation for Migration warned on Friday the world must prepare for a mass increase in climate-linked migration as leaders battled to save a deal on global warming in Copenhagen. "Climate change and environmental degradation are already triggering migration or displacement all over the planet," the IOM warned on the critical last day of the Denmark summit, which coincides with International Migrants Day.

Right now, "it is the world's poorest countries that are bearing the brunt" of the migration, said the Geneva-based body, calling for leaders to make "greater efforts, beyond Copenhagen," to tackle the complex issue. IOM director general William Lacy Swing said experts still struggle to measure the number of people worldwide who choose to leave or are driven from their homes because of climate change and environmental degradation.

But he said the IOM has established beyond doubt that environmental migration "is a growing trend" and that "climate change, demographic trends and globalisation all point to more migration in the future."…

Daumier's "The Refugees," 1848-1855