Bogumil Terminski Environmentally-Induced Displacement ... - Cedem

Climate Change uses the term “forced climate migrants”. Though he does notseek to define in a exhaustive way this phenomenon. In his view, the problemrequires a far broader normative conceptualization, especially in the context ofinternational refugee protection. Equally important are the practical measuresat the national level. State authorities should seek to minimize the problemsassociated with deteriorating environmental conditions: poverty, health risks,marginalization and lack of access to basic resources.The impact of climate change on the dynamics of migration processes is acontroversial issue. According to many experts there is currently no clearevidence of climate processes such as sustained increase in sea level. Researchon global warming leads to more and more doubts and antagonisms. Studies ofthis kind are most often deeply politicized. Furthermore what is worthmentioning is that the climate change processes are only a bart of a broaderenvironmental context, rather than vice versa. These caveats were clearlyillustrated by Kanti Bimal Paul, author of recently published bookEnvironmental Hazards and Disasters: Contexts, Perspectives andManagement. In his view, “climate migrant is a subcategory of environmentalmigrant and sea level rise migrant is a subcategory of climate migrant” 42 .As Frank Laczko and Christine Aghazarm noted:‘Natural disasters’ can be seen as a subcategory of ‘environmental disasters’,which have been classified by theorists in different ways, according to theircause and temporal nature. The causes of displacement are difficult todisentangle, given the political, economic, demographic and environmentalfactors at play 43 .As Elizabeth Ferris added, climate conditioned migrations or displacementsare usually permanent in nature. People forced to flee as a result of rising sealevels will not have a chance to get back home. In extreme cases, climate exile42B. Kanti Paul, Environmental Hazards and Disasters. Contexts, Perspectives and Management, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, s. 25.43F. Laczko, Ch. Aghazarm (eds.), Migration, Environemt and Climate Change, Assessing the Evidence, IOM,Geneva, 2009, p. 250.