Refugees

50 Million Environmental Refugees by 2020, Experts Predict

by Joanna Zelman

February 22, 2011

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/22/environmental-refugees-50_n_826488.html



A growing problem in the world is environmental refugees. Environmental refugees are people who have to leave their home because conditions are unsuitable for life. Examples would be if there is a drought and there's no water, or if there's a flood and there's no food. This isn't some sort of threat. This is actually happening. Already many Africans are crossing into Southern Europe due to food shortages. Global warming is playing a huge role in this. Global warming is causing warmer winters, which means less pests will die. With more pests, more plants will get infected with disease, which means less food. When there's no food, you've gotta move. Global warming is getting so bad, The Marshall Islands are trying to figure out if they'll still be a nation when all of their land goes underwater. That would be an entire country of environmental refugees. This shows we need to do more about global warming than we thought.



I think this shows, once again, that global warming is messing up the world. It's amazing that it's gotten this bad. I think it would suck if I had to become a refugee. We really need to stop being lazy about the environment.



1) Are you going to do anything to prevent this?

2) What would you do if you became a refugee?

3) Do you think this will ever happen to anyone you know?