Climate Change and Displacement

Today, more people are being displaced by environmental causes than by war and political persecution combined. Experts project that in 40 years, 200 million people will be displaced by the effects of climate change.

Think climate change isn't a homelessness issue? I beg to differ.

Typically, our conversations about homelessness here on the "End Homelessness" blog relate to financial independence, domestic policy, social services, or even pop culture. But today, in honor of Blog Action Day's topic - Climate Change - we're approaching the term "homeless" from an entirely different angle.

Remember Hurricane Katrina? Four years ago, Hurricane Katrina's rising waters destroyed homes, displacing thousands of people from the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. The ordeal was - and continues to be - a nightmare for those who lost everything and an administrative embarrassment for the federal government. Even people whose homes were not physically destroyed were forced to relocate because of the changed economic conditions in the region.

Naturally, there's a technical term for this type of displacement: ecomigration. And experts predict that if the climate change status quo remains the status quo, these types of incidents will quickly become the norm instead of the exception.

Within a country, ecomigration can create problems like those that followed Hurricane Katrina, housing shortages and unemployment. But from a global perspective, the impacts of massive ecomigrations could be much more severe.

The Equator Initiative projects that upwards of 200 million people are projected to be displaced by 2050 due to "rising sea levels, desertification, drying aquifers, weather-induced flooding and other serious environmental changes." The Washington Post explains that "conflicts and war often follow migrations of large numbers of people across international borders."

If we don't talk about climate change issues, then we are all in danger of becoming homeless.