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6 - Climate-induced migration and conflict: what are the links?

from Part II - Societal responses: livelihood, vulnerability, and migration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2012

Kirsten Hastrup
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Karen Fog Olwig
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
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Summary

Abstract

History tells us that humans are perfectly capable of adapting to a changing environment. The past ice ages are proof of the great adaptive capacity of our kind. Anthropogenic climate change will happen – and, if unabated – with catastrophic consequences. More extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and a hotter and drier climate are some of the predicted outcomes seriously affecting people's choice of where to live on an increasingly crowded planet. Climate-induced migration is not new, as already in the past people moved when faced by environmental change; but today, population densities have increased dramatically, and arable land has become more limited. Large cross-border streams of ‘climate migrants’ or ‘environmental refugees’ caused by tropical cyclones, associated flooding and landslides, droughts, and sea-level rise could trigger resource competition with violent outcomes in the receiving country or region. But can these claims be substantiated? This chapter examines different types of natural hazards relevant for climate-induced migration, and argues that without an analysis identifying the people most vulnerable to natural hazards (for example, where they live and how they are affected), it is difficult to access the conflict potential of climate-induced migration.

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Chapter
Information
Climate Change and Human Mobility
Challenges to the Social Sciences
, pp. 147 - 166
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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