Last year, 42 million people worldwide were forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center reported two weeks ago. The worst year on record, 2010 saw problems worldwide, with 15 million forced to leave their homes in China and 11 million in Pakistan because of flooding.
This year's disasters are already piling up, with cyclones, earthquakes and floods on every continent.
The number of people displaced in 2010 was more than double the 17 million displaced in 2009 by natural disasters such as the floods in China and Pakistan and earthquakes in Chile and Haiti. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, stated that issues of climate related to displacement is one of the most important challenges of our times. Sensible planning is needed before the next disaster.