Climate Refugees

The Washington Post today has an interesting feature on the effects of climate change on the world’s water supply—and what that means for global conflict. As temperatures warm around the world and access to water becomes tighter, a movement of “climate refugees” is likely to follow, upsetting existing socio-political orders. The UN has pointed out the connection of water issues to the situation in Darfur, and several Middle Eastern countries have had skirmishes—both dipolomatic and otherwise—over water. These trends are increasingly likely to affect the industrialized world as well, as, for example, Mexican climate refugees push into the United States, or the American Southwest faces a renewal of “Dustbowl” conditions in the coming years. Anticipating global shifts, unfortunately, is not one of the current humanitarian sector’s strong points—an issue that is explored in the PCR Project’s upcoming study on enhancing international crisis management, due out in mid-September.