Obama: Climate change could cause a refugee crisis that's 'unprecedented in human history'

pulse

May 9, 2017 5:21 PM

At a global food innovation summit, former US President Barack Obama said if climate change continues at its current rate, its effects will be "catastrophic."

Former U.S. President Barack Obama talks during the Global Food Innovation Summit in Milan, Italy May 9, 2017.

Climate change is not only leading to global rising temperatures, it's also displacing millions of people from their homes.

According to former President Barack Obama, if we don't mitigate greenhouse gas emissions soon, climate change will likely result in a global refugee crisis.

"If you think about monsoon patterns in the Indian subcontinent, maybe half a billion people rely on traditional rain patterns in those areas," he said at Seeds and Chips, a global food innovation summit in Italy, on May 9. "If those rain patterns change, then you could see hundreds of millions of people who suddenly find themselves unable to feed themselves, because they're already at subsistence levels. The amount of migration — the number of refugees that could result from something like that — would be unprecedented in human history."

Regions — from the US to Southeast Asia— are already seeing the effects of climate change, including sea level rise, drought, and sinking land. All of these factors can displace people from their homes, and make it difficult to grow food on top of that.

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