Natural disasters producing environmental refugees

According to the United Nations University, there are likely to be 50 million worldwide environmental refugees by 2010. The main sources of refugees are land degradation due to unsustainable land management; and flooding, exacerbated by global warming. The UNU have calculated that the number of refugees created by natural disasters exceeds that produced by war and conflict. The problems are likely to increase as environmental refugees join poor, squatter communities in urban areas.