Some 250.000 evacuees from last year s Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf
Coast may never return permanently and should be considered "climate
refugees," whose ranks around the world could grow until global warming
is mitigated, an environmental expert said.
The number of "climate refugees" will grow unless the world cuts the
amount of greenhouse gases it releases, said Lester Brown, president of
Earth Policy Institute in Washington D.C.
"What were looking at is the potential not of displacing thousands of
people, but possibly millions of people as the result of rising seas and
more destructive storms in the years and decades ahead if we dont move
quickly to reduce CO2 emissions," he said.
Most scientists believe greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide
released from burning fossil fuels contribute to global warming.
More intense hurricanes are likely in the future because global warming
could mean warmer sea surface temperatures, which fuel hurricane
development, scientists from green group Environmental Defense said this
month.
Katrina flooded New Orleans and sent a 28-foot storm surge into
Mississippi and Alabama, forcing about 1 million people to evacuate to
neighboring states.
In New Orleans parish, only about half of the pre-Katrina population of
437,000 had returned by the beginning of last month, according to
Claritas, a private demographic data firm.
Not everyone agrees the evacuees should be considered "climate
refugees." Bill OKeefe, a board member of Washington D.C.-based think
tank the George C. Marshall Institute and a consultant to the oil
industry said last year s hurricanes were a result of a 20- to 30-year
cycle in storm intensity.
He said Brown was taking "an extremist view, made to make a political
point."
So far this year no hurricanes have formed in the Atlantic, but typhoon
activity in Asia has been intense. The strongest typhoon to hit China in
half a century killed more than 250, according to the official Xinhua
news agency. Brown said residents of Shanghai, a city of millions, would
be particularly vulnerable to any storm the strength of Katrina.
(Por Timothy Gardner,
Environmental News Network,17/08/2006)