According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 18 million people worldwide left their homes due to weather-related disasters. That’s almost twice as many people as those who were displaced by war or conflict. With atmospheric greenhouse gasses hitting historic highs in January, 2021, climate change models predict more frequent, intense and prolonged storms, floods and droughts in the years to come. That, in turn, will likely drive more and more people from their homes, with some predictions hitting 100-200 million people displaced by 2050. The Trump Administration generally buried its head in the sand when it came to climate change, but there are signs the Biden Administration is paying attention. Whether or not U.S. policy changes is enough to help climate migrants, however, remains to be seen. Kayly Ober is a senior advocate and program manager of the climate displacement program at Refugees International.

Climate Map by KVDP, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons