climate refugee

[klahy-mit ref-yoo-jee, ref-yoo-jee]

noun

1. a person who has had to flee their home due to the negative effects of climate change.

Word History and Origins

Origin of climate refugee¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

Kalmus also noted that becoming a climate refugee is not as easy as simply making a choice to move out of a suddenly-uninhabitable location.

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Recognising the existential threat facing these communities, in November close neighbour Australia offered climate refugee visas to Pacific Islanders.

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"People have created all sorts of ways to live in more challenging places that flood," Moon reflected to Salon when asked about the likelihood of mass climate refugee crises.

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News headlines warn of a coming "climate refugee crisis," with rising sea levels spurring mass migration on a "biblical scale."

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His best friend, the nature writer Barry Lopez, died of prostate cancer that December, three months after a wildfire had burned parts of his home near the McKenzie River in Oregon, making him a climate refugee.

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