A report by Christian Aid, a group representing churches in Britain and Ireland, forecasts that up to a billion people could be forced to leave their homes by 2050 due to global warming and other developments.
The Christian Aid study is based on latest UN population and climate change figures. It says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, south Asia and the Middle East.
Western governments are increasingly aware of climate change as a security issue. Britain's foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, has highlighted the threat of climate change to the UN security council and last week said it was an underlying factor in the Darfur crisis with the potential to escalate many other existing conflicts. "In climate change we have a new and potentially disastrous dynamic," she said.
Over staunch Republican opposition, the US National Intelligence director has been given the go ahead to commence his own study of the looming environmental threats to US security.
Meanwhile, the C40, which represents leaders of the world's largest cities, begin their Large Cities Climate Summit in New York today. They contend that cities have a big role in combatting climate change as they contribute up to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions.
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