Writer Gaia Vince calls for UN agency dedicated to climate change

Over the next 50 years, hotter temperatures combined with more intense humidity are set to make large parts of the globe uninhabitable. The UN says up to a billion people could be displaced by climate change by 2050 alone. 

Instead of falling for right-wing rhetoric and opposing migration, award-winning science writer Gaia Vince argues that we should begin making preparations and establishing bodies to oversee huge population movements which are inevitable.

In her book, Nomad Nation, she also points out that migration is the basis of the human story ever since we left Africa over 200,000 years ago.  

Now, in conversation with CGTN, she asserts that climate migration is already underway, with uncertain estimates ranging from hundreds of millions to one and a half billion people potentially moving by the middle of the century. 

Vince highlights the historical significance of migration in human evolution and adaptation to changing climates. She points out that the current climate change is unprecedented in its speed and extremity, affecting an interconnected global population of 8 billion. The impact extends beyond borders, affecting infrastructure, food systems, and health, necessitating a more cooperative and savvy response. 

She proposes a global solution, suggesting the establishment of a United Nations agency to oversee a planetary movement on an unprecedented scale, and draws parallels with the COP process for climate change, where nations collaboratively limit emissions. 

Vince is the honorary senior research fellow at UCL's Anthropocene Institute and has held senior editorial positions at Nature and New Scientist.

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