Record refugee exodus demands we look 'up-river' to see the cause

A refugee attempts to find a better life - such
sights will become increasingly common as
climate change worsens.

The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide is likely to have "far surpassed" a record 60 million this year, mainly driven by the Syrian war and other protracted conflicts, the United Nations says.

The estimated figure includes 20.2 million people fleeing wars and persecution, the most since 1992, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a report.

Nearly 2.5 million asylum seekers have requests pending, with Germany, Russia and the United States receiving the highest numbers of the nearly 1 million new claims lodged in the first half of the year, it said.

"2015 is on track to see worldwide forced displacement exceeding 60 million for the first time — one in every 122 humans is today someone who has been forced to flee their homes," the report said.

Read the ABC story - “World's refugees and displaced exceed record 60 million, mainly driven by Syrian conflict.”

(This is an “up-river” problem – what appears to be the cause is not really the cause.

The exodus of Syrians is, of course, caused by the war but the war evolved from food shortages, food shortages because of the drought and the drought because of climate change.

Therefore, maybe it is reasonable to say that the thousands fleeing from Syria are in fact climate refugees, just a wave of people that will become commonplace as the rigours of climate change involve more and more people, and countries – Robert McLean.)