Alessandro Grassani: Environmental Migrants (Haiti, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Kenya)Artist Statement: A

Alessandro Grassani: Environmental Migrants (Haiti, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Kenya)Artist Statement: A multi-chapters project depicting one of the main and often overlooked consequences of climate change on human populations: the rural-urban environmental migration.Environmental migration is like an unexploded device: in the not too distant future, the entire planet will have to face the economic and social burden of its consequences. By 2050, one in 45 people will be an environmental migrant—200 million people in total: today there are already 50 millions (source, IOM and UN).Ninety percent of these 200 million migrants live in developing countries and they will not “land” in the richer nations, but will look for new sources of income in the urban areas of their home countries, which are already overcrowded and often extremely poor. In 2008, for the first time in history, there are more people living in cities than in rural areas and cities will grow even larger due to climate change and to environmental migrants.[…]Mongolia, Bangladesh, Kenya and Haiti are some of the countries most hit by the phenomenon of environmental migration (source: IOM, International Organization for Migration).MONGOLIA, ULAN BATORIn 2010, during one of the harshest winters, more than 8 million livestock died in Mongolia. Around 20,000 herdsmen had no other choice but to migrate towards the Capital, Ulan Bator, which has doubled its population in the last 20 years.KENYA, NAIROBIKenya’s pastoral population has been among the hardest hit by climate change in Africa. Droughts and wars between different pastoral groups seeking pasture and water for their animals are pushing many Kenyans dreaming of a better future towards Nairobi. According to a 2009 UN-Habitat, in the last 20 years, the numbers of environmental migrants arrived to Nairobi increased from 26% to 74%.BANGLADESH, DHAKABangladesh is one of the countries more seriously affected by climate change. Dhaka, its capital, has a population of 14 million which is expected to increase to 50 million by 2050. Dhaka has over 300,000 newcomers entering the city each year. Many of them are environmental migrants.HAITI, PORT AU PRINCEHaiti is one of the world’s most endangered places vis-a-vis climate change. According to the UN and IOM, as drought, cyclones, hurricanes, floods become more frequent, their impact will be amplified specifically in Haiti by the country’s existing environmental degradation.Indeed, Haiti is almost completely denuded of trees, making Haiti’s environment one of the most fragile in the world. The vulnerability of the country to natural disasters has triggered waves of internal migration from rural to urban areas. In Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital and largest city, half of the residents were not born there and the overcrowded city continues to serve as the main destination for thousands of environmental migrants every year. -- source link

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