People Displaced by Climate Change Need Our Help, But So Do Those Who Cannot Leave | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

What this means is that just because a community faces environmental hazards, even severe ones, it does not necessarily follow that local people will migrate to escape those conditions. Indeed, the argument comes full circle once we identify the circumstances in which people do move. Analysis in the Foresight report shows that in certain scenarios to 2060, around 190 million more people will be living in low-elevation coastal cities in Africa and Asia where the threat of flooding is very real. Part of the reason is that people move into urban areas to improve their economic prospects regardless of the environmental threat. In Dakar in Senegal, for instance, 40 percent of those who moved there between 1998 and 2008 moved to areas of high flood risk. The city’s natural geographical confines prevented alternative settlement options for those who wanted to find jobs in the city.