According to an analysis released Monday by the World Bank, as the effects of climate change continue to worsen over the next few decades, an estimated 216 million people will be forced to emigrate from their homes by 2050.
In Groundswell’s latest report, the authors relied on computer modeling to examine the number of people who would look for new places to live in their home countries because of the consequences of rising global temperatures. The report found that the developing world would be hardest hit in the coming years, with up to 86 million “climate migrants” in sub-Saharan Africa, 49 million in East Asia and the Pacific, 40 million in South Asia, 19 million in North Africa, 17 million in Latin America and 5 million throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
“The Groundswell report is a total reminder of the human toll of climate change, especially for the world’s poorest countries, which contribute the least to its causes. It also clearly sets out a path for countries to address some of the key factors that are causing climate migration, “Juergen Voegele, the World Bank’s vice president of sustainable development, said in a statement. “All of these issues are fundamentally connected, which is why our support to countries is positioned to meet climate and development goals while building a more sustainable, secure and resilient future.”
The findings, which did not examine cross-border migration, come amid a summer of relentless extreme weather events that have served to emphasize the scope of the problem that climate change poses to humanity. Numerous studies have linked these events to rising global temperatures, including record heat waves and extreme drought in much of the West, a fire season that continues to burn states such as California, Oregon and Nevada and floods. deaths and recurrences that have plagued the western central, southern, and eastern United States.
A Yahoo News / YouGov poll conducted between July 30 and August 2 found that a clear majority of Americans (55%) say they have noticed more extreme weather events where they live (heat waves, fires, storms , etc.) 37% say no. Of those who have noticed extreme weather in their area, a full 15 percent say they are considering the drastic step of moving elsewhere.
In its latest terrible assessment, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that concerted global action is needed to prevent a future in which extreme weather disasters are commonplace.
“Alarms are deafening and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and deforestation are drowning our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global warming is affecting all regions of the Earth. , and many of the changes become irreversible, “UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement accompanying the IPCC report. “The internationally agreed threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius is dangerously close.”
While the World Bank found that “hot spots of internal climate migration” could begin to emerge as early as 2030, the report also noted that if global governments take swift concerted action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , the “Up to 80 percent” scrolling scale could be reduced.
Yet, even at best, with global governments setting out on a path to drastically reducing emissions, the report estimates that 44 million people could be forced to flee their homes by 2050. because of the consequences of global warming that the world has already suffered. .
____
Read more on Yahoo News: