Environmental migrant

Papua New Guinea inhabitants are in a race against climate change as they continue to lose their land to rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Since 1994, the islanders of the seven atolls have lost about 50% of their land. In an effort to relocate from a no longer habitable environment, they face devastating economic and political obstacles.

In Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of people are being displaced from their coastal homes and are moving into the slums of cities unprepared to handle the influx. What’s new is the frequency of climate-related catastrophes and the scale of their impact.

Toward the end of 2018, Central American migrant groups of several thousands of people began journeys towards the United States. Many are fleeing a massive drought that has lasted for five years.

Refugees and asylum-seekers from poor countries to the US border are often attributed, incorrectly, to domestic unrest in a far-off nation. But migration is largely the result of global phenomena like colonialism, climate change and trade.

Migration isn’t caused just by violence and failing governments: Climate-related problems such as drought, extreme storms and excessive heat have pushed many small farmers in Central America to leave their land and head north.