CLIMATE DISPLACEMENT IN THE NEWS
A study conducted by researchers at the University of East Anglia found that about 90% of the Himalayan region will experience drought lasting over a year if global temperatures were to increase by 3°C. This would not only negatively impact long-term water storage in the form of snow and ice, but it would also be devastating for communities as these areas form the headwaters of many major river systems, thus the water source for millions of people.
With about 30 percent of Iraq covered in desert, all of these added climate problems, along with a population rapidly increasing, which we detailed in this earlier Spotlight, renders an already vulnerable population from conflict, geopolitical tensions, decades of sanctions, chronic poverty and corruption, rather fragile. It’s no wonder then that right now, thousands of families across Iraq continue to be displaced from their homes in rural parts of the country due to the loss of arable land and water scarcity.
