OSLO, Norway — About 42 million people were forced to flee their
homes because of natural disasters around the world in 2010, more than
double the number during the previous year, experts said Monday.
One reason for the increase in the figure could be climate change,
and the international community should be doing more to contain it, the
experts said.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said the
increase from 17 million displaced people in 2009 was mainly due to the
impact of “mega-disasters” such as the massive floods in China and
Pakistan and the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.
It said more than 90 percent of the disaster displacements were
caused by weather-related hazards such as floods and storms that were
probably impacted by global warming, but it couldn’t say to what extent…
Speaking at the Oslo conference, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
Antonio Guterres called the issue of climate-related displacement “the
defining challenge of our times” and criticized the international
community for lacking the political will to reduce to pace of climate
change.
“There is increasing evidence to suggest that natural disasters are
growing in frequency and intensity and that this is linked to the
longer-term process of climate change,” Guterres said.
Courtesy of Huffington Post