Climate Change and its Impact on Global Migration Patterns

Every corner of the world is reeling from the adverse effects of climate change in one way or another. The greenhouse effect has not only changed weather patterns, but has also shifted the complete dynamics of life for many people right here in Canada, and indeed across the world. One of the burgeoning situations caused by the climate crisis in one way or another is the often forceful migration of populations. As individuals seek better living conditions in the wake of the damage occasioned by this situation they often find themselves uprooted from their loved ones, and having to adjust to lower living conditions.

Against the backdrop of these happenings, other pertinent life situations are also being affected by climatic changes. The dynamics of a changing population have prompted iGaming giant platforms like Mr Bet Casino to adapt to the changing situations. Join us as we explore the intricacies surrounding human mobility.

Drivers of Forced Migration

Analysts in the environmental sector categorize the climatic factors that have led and will continue to lead to population displacement into two stark categories. The first group is what is referred to as Climate Drivers. Within the first grouping, there are two categories namely Climate Events and Climate processes.

For starters, Climate processes involve a slow-burn effect where you may not see effects coming, but they sure are coming. Things like the gradual increase in sea levels, salinization of agricultural land, and desertification are the typical slow burns that we’re talking about. They eventually make lands so extreme for their population, that the population that has settled on the land has no other option than to move. Their extent of damage is not only to resources but also extends to the livelihoods of the population.

Climate events, on the other hand, are more sudden and leave long-lasting damage when they do occur. Hurricanes, typhoons, floods, and tsunamis, are just some of the examples of these events. Of course, what follows with them is lasting damage that often forces people to move from where they were originally settled.

In as much as there is a general assumption that population shifts due to environmental upheaval are a recent thing, there is clear evidence to suggest that is wrong. This evidence suggests that since time immemorial, the human population has always responded in one way or another to adverse weather conditions. Oftentimes, this reaction has involved shifting locations to better places. The migration of recent times has received more attention because it’s on a larger scale due to increased global warming levels as a consequence of pollution.

An Impending Crisis

The 2001 World Disasters Report of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated that there were about 25 million “environment refugees” around the world at that time. More than two decades later, and that figure is likely to have ballooned to unprecedented levels. Many UN studies have projected that by 2050, more than 1 billion period may be forced to migrate due to the effects of climate change across the world.

The world, as we know it is at risk of various calamities in extreme forms. To paint a stark picture for you, let’s explore the various angles of an impending disaster situation.

• Constant Drought: Analysts predict that by 2099 the world’s average temperature will rise by 1.8  to 4 degrees Celsius. The implication of this is that most of the world’s land mass will be dried and more people will suffer from the adverse effects of drought. This will in turn lead to people trying to move to areas that don’t have drought, causing a strain on the already scarce resources.
•  Rain patterns will vary, and be highly unpredictable and the hydrological cycle will continue to be intense as the days go by
• The changed weather patterns and an unstable hydrological cycle mean that there will likely be extreme weather conditions like droughts, storms, and floods.
• The risk of melting glaciers will increase, resulting in more cases of flooding moving forward.

The predictive scenarios by analysts which are backed by reasonable data are scary, to say the least. That said, the above likely scenarios paint a harrowing summary, that sooner rather than later the pertinent resources for survival like food, shelter, and water will be highly limited due to global warming.

Is Migration the Solution?

In the short term, population shifts might be a solution, but when we look beyond short-term solutions, it seems like we’ll soon run out of space to run. Migration also bears many inherent risks for the shifting populations like human trafficking, and gender-based violence. So, while there’s little we can do in the immediate term, our focus should be to ultimately address the root cause of the global migration problem, and that is climate change. Stop it, slow it down, and we’ll have a lot less to worry about.