Over 8.7 million people in over 88 countries have been internationally displaced as of December 31, 2022. With climate change aggravating temperature levels and weather, increasing amounts of people have been forced to flee their homes, becoming internationally displaced as they seek refuge. Others choose or are forced to stay in their communities, facing dangerous natural events that could cost them their life. As time goes by, these events become stronger and more dangerous, while very little is being done to combat the source of the issues. Climate change is a growing problem for the world and can cause dangerous situations for people who live in areas with high amounts of natural disasters.
Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been using increasing amounts of fossil fuels in order to create more energy. The greenhouse gasses from these fuels rise up to the atmosphere and trap in heat, which warms up the planet. This has caused larger amounts of climate change-triggered disasters, as Earth’s water cycle and weather patterns have started to change. Hoesung Lee, the former chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change discussed this in a press release, saying that “climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet.” If action is not taken quickly, climate change will cause irreversible problems on Earth, with catastrophic consequences, including ongoing hardship as people lose their jobs and crops across the world fail.
With the world facing unavoidable climate disasters, dangerous situations have arisen in many countries. People have been forced to flee their homes as their towns become uninhabitable, to avoid facing life-threatening heat waves and floods. These refugees have had to find safe places to live; resorting to immigrating across borders. People who have the most to lose have been hit the hardest due to these events while being subjected to living in regions that are ill-equipped to provide for their families. This has caused them to lose their previous quality of life, as wealthy countries increase immigration policies after political upheaval and backlash against the refugees. They have resorted to depending on developing countries, who are setting aside needed resources for these people. This has resulted in little funding for housing and resources for the thousands of people seeking refuge.
While thousands of people are able to flee their homes and communities to evade dangerous weather, there are many others who stay in their communities. These groups of people are called trapped populations: they do not migrate, so are at risk of becoming trapped and being left behind after a severe weather event. This causes them to become more vulnerable to impoverishment and even causes them to have the risk of death due to heightened natural disasters. Many people who are trapped in their communities choose to stay back, even at the risk of their lives. They choose to do this due to attachments to their family's land, with some saying they would never leave no matter how much money was offered to them. Many in climate-impacted countries who choose to stay would prefer dying than leaving their homeland, while they are fully aware of the consequences of their actions.
Climate change is an increasingly growing issue, which severely affects people all around the world. As the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere exponentially grows, natural disasters have increased in frequency and destructiveness. This causes people to be put in positions of danger, where they have to give up everything and become a refugee, or risk everything for the sake of staying with their home. If nothing is done to combat climate change, severe weather damage will intensify, and more people will lose their homes and lives to the elements. Ultimately, more people will be put in danger every year, as attempts are made to fix climate change - if any are even made at all.
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