DEBATING ENVIRONMENTAL MIGRATION: SOCIETY, NATURE AND POPULATION DISPLACEMENT IN CLIMATE CHANGE

This article approaches the problem of environment and migration through a consideration of convergent themes regarding nature and society in ecological theory and in social scientific disaster research. The paper argues that the articulation between ecological and social theory provides grounding concepts for both framing the issue and research on the problem of actual and potential mass displacement of human populations by environmental change, specifically global climate change. This article asserts that effective policy responses to environmental displacement and migration cannot be developed without an in‐depth understanding of the phenomena of climate change, human‐environment relations, and migration and the linkages among them. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.