"Environmental refugees"

I don't know what merit to give this at this point as I haven't read the report and some environmental problems, such as desertification, have been overstressed in the past. But an interesting item nonetheless warning of a new refugee problem based in environmental deterioration.

A deteriorating environment could drive about 50 million people from their homes by 2010 and the world needs to define a new category of "environmental" refugee, a U.N. study said on Tuesday.

Desertification, rising sea levels, flooding and storms linked to climate change might displace hundreds of millions of people, according to the report by the U.N. University's Institute for Environment and Human Security....

The report can be found here at the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Health Security.