Alex de Sherbinin, deputy manager of NASA's Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) and associate director for Science Applications at Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), recently published the feature article "Impacts of Climate Change as Drivers of Migration" in Migration Information Source, the online journal of the Migration Policy Institute. The article reviews the growing evidence base for environmentally induced migration, summarizes key lessons learned, and assesses implications for future migration under climate change.
Climate-migration linkages have also been the focus of a number of recent events. On October 21, de Sherbinin gave a presentation, "Climate Change and Its Impacts on (Well Being), Migration, and Displacement," to the Virtual Global Climate Change Seminar Series of the Weill Cornell Medicine Global Health Education program. He also moderated a virtual panel "Climate, Conflict, and Coronavirus: A Perfect Storm for Migrants and Displaced Persons" on October 22. Panelists included Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness; Kamal Amakrane, director in the Office of the President of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA); and Leslie Roberts, associate professor of Population and Family Health and a member of the Program on Forced Migration and Health at Columbia′s Mailman School of Public Health. This was one of a series of panels organized by the Committee on Forced Migration, an initiative of the Columbia Global Centers.
CIESIN director Robert Chen presented approaches to open data access by the Earth observations and research communities during an online stakeholder consultation organized October 21 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Conclusions and recommendations from the session are being submitted as inputs to the WMO Data Conference, to be held virtually November 16–19. The WMO Data Conference is seeking to develop a common understanding across all sectors of society on the roles, requirements, and arrangements needed for international exchange of observations and other data for monitoring and prediction of the Earth System environment, including weather, climate, and water.