About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


29 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 501 (2014-2015)
Climate Change's First Casualties: Migration and Disappearing States

handle is hein.journals/geoimlj29 and id is 511 raw text is: NOTES CLIMATE CHANGE'S FIRST CASUALTIES: MIGRATION AND DISAPPEARING STATES REED KOENIG* Climate change, in some regions, has aggravated conflict over scarce land, and could well trigger large-scale migration in the decades ahead. And rising sea levels put at risk the very survival of all small island states. These and other implications for peace and security have implications for the United Nations itself 1 -Ban Ki-moon INTRODUCTION The International Organization for Migration (IOM) forecasts between twenty-five million to one billion climate change migrants by 2050.2 The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) estimates that there will be 150 million.3 Oxford Professor Norman Myers believes that there will be 200 million.4 Clearly, while there is debate over the exact amount, these estimates are on a massive scale, equaling at least 1.5% of the estimated 2050 world * J.D. Candidate, 2016, Georgetown University Law Center; B.A. Religion, Political Sci- ence, 2010, University of Rochester. © 2016, Reed Koenig. 1. U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary- General's remarks to Security Council on Maintenance of International Peace and Security: New Challenges to International Peace and Security and Conflict Prevention, UNITED NATIONS (Nov. 23, 2011), http://www.un.org/sg/statements/ ?nid-5704. 2. Migration and Climate Change, INT'L ORG. FOR MIGRATION (2008), available at http://www. iom.cz/files/Migration and ClimateChange_-_IOMMigrationResearchSeries No 31.pdf (last visited Jan. 2, 2015). 3. John Vidal, Global warming could create 150 million climate refugees by 2050, GUARDIAN, (Nov. 2, 2009, 7:05 PM), http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/nov/03/global-warming- climate-refugees. 4. Max Jerneck, Policy Responses to Climate Refugees: What Are Governments Doing?, CLIMATE INST. (Mar. 2009), http://www.climate.org/topics/environmental-security/climate-refugee-policy. html (last visited Jan. 3, 2015).