Displaced people, tented camps, long
lines of people walking are some images produced by climate changes. It seems unlikely that such human movements are still in act, but these people are "climate refugees".
According to a forecast by the United Nations, in 2050 the Earth will have to face the trauma depicted by 200 million "environmental migrants" - people who will not “land” in the richer nations, but will look for new ways of livelihood in the urban areas of their home countries, which are already overcrowded and often extremely poor. 90% of this kind of migration will occur literally in less developed countries, with relocation from rural areas to the more degraded areas of the city known as slums.
Images of large numbers of people, moving over long distances and crossing international borders and possibly continents, will be very confident with our daily reality. They don't have a real status or international rights. They seem invisible. Moving requires resources and as people become poorer, moving becomes harder. Climate change could in fact trap people in dangerous locations. Cities will grow even larger due to climate change and to environmental migrants, who are destined to become the new humanitarian emergency of the planet in the next few decades. This raises huge questions about urban planning, infrastructures and how cities plan to deal with the effects of climate change.
According to a forecast by the United Nations, in 2050 the Earth will have to face the trauma depicted by 200 million "environmental migrants" - people who will not “land” in the richer nations, but will look for new ways of livelihood in the urban areas of their home countries, which are already overcrowded and often extremely poor. 90% of this kind of migration will occur literally in less developed countries, with relocation from rural areas to the more degraded areas of the city known as slums.
Images of large numbers of people, moving over long distances and crossing international borders and possibly continents, will be very confident with our daily reality. They don't have a real status or international rights. They seem invisible. Moving requires resources and as people become poorer, moving becomes harder. Climate change could in fact trap people in dangerous locations. Cities will grow even larger due to climate change and to environmental migrants, who are destined to become the new humanitarian emergency of the planet in the next few decades. This raises huge questions about urban planning, infrastructures and how cities plan to deal with the effects of climate change.
Alessandro Grassani is the author of “Environmental migrants - the last illusion”, a documentary photography project made of three chapters - Ulaan Baator , Mongolia / Dhaka , Bangladesh / Nairobi , Kenya
Ulaan Baator is the capital of Mongolia , a country three times bigger than France Mongolia, so 39,000 herdsmen had no choice but to migrate towards Ulaan Batoor
In the last 20 years, the population of the capital has doubled: this recent environmental migration has brought with it a high level of unemployment, poverty and inhumane social conditions. The Ger District has in fact developed without any urban planning, running water or electricity. The herdsmen, forced to abandon the rural areas and arrived in the city after a lifetime spent in the pastures, are untrained to take on any kind of work and end up living a life of hardship.
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| Ulaan Baator, view of the Gher District |
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| The Tsamba family lives on the edge, struggling through harsh winters alongside their herd of sheep. |
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| Ulaan Batoor, Mongolia |
Credits: Alessandro Grassani, Privatephotoreview.
