Predicting A Shift: Climate Migrants

A report released by Greenpeace titled “Blue Alert – Climate Migrants in South Asia: Estimates and Solutions” focuses on how climate change will cause major migration shifts on the South Asian subcontinent in the coming century and offers policy recommendations.

Looking at India and Bangladesh alone, approximately 125 million migrants, comprising about 75 million from Bangladesh and remaining 50 million from densely-populated coastal regions and other vulnerable parts of India, could be rendered homeless by the end of this century.

Migration patterns will occur both across borders and from rural to urban areas. A Times of India article notes that:

The study estimates that eight million of the rural population is likely to migrate to urban areas specifically because of their double exposure to climate change and their inability to adapt to global trade impacts by the end of this century.

With the release of the report, Greenpeace is also launching a Blue Alert campaign, which “aims to catalyse citizens in the coastal danger zones, and empower them with information so that impacted communities are able to bring up their concerns with their elected representatives.”