Friday, November 30, 2012

Climate Refugees


In a recent Internet search on ‘climate refugees’ I came across the website for the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) which is a non-profit organization based in the UK working to protect the environment and defend human rights. The world is going to need more organizations like EJF as we’re going to be hearing a lot more about climate refugees in the near future.

Since becoming a water advocate, I have been interested in research on climate refugees, and have observed that developing countries are already faced with this challenge, while the developed countries are just beginning to see signs of what the future holds.  

The recent news covering the effects of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast United States and the intense storms causing flooding in San Francisco, CA are just two stories to grab headlines. This week Dubai was also hit with flooding after heavy rains.  It’s time to start paying attention to how climate change and severe weather is affecting people around the world.

The EJF website features a short film in which a climate refugee in Bangladesh explains what happened to her family.

Click to view video: Home Truths: Taslima Begum


Sources

Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)

Heavy Rain Causes Flooding in UAE
http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-971-report/heavy-rain-causes-flooding-in-uae-102304850.html


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