Climate change: Contrary motion? BBC News Earth Watch

One issue, two reports, two different conclusions.

In short, a recipe for confusion - at least, on the surface.

Last week the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the London-based think-tank, published a report suggesting that fears of mass migration caused by climate change were misplaced.

A few days later, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) trailed its forthcoming report with a release recommending that:

"Governments in Asia and the Pacific need to prepare for a large increase in climate-induced migration in the coming years..."

At face value, then, the starkest of contradictions: and an important one, because if millions of people (perhaps a billion, according to a 2007 report from Christian Aid [pdf link]) are forced away from their homes, that's a huge issue for governments and international agencies to deal with.
If they're not, the money and resources that might have been mis-directed at this issue can be re-directed at others.

So why the confused picture? Is it really a confusion of conclusions - or of terminologies?

>> Read the full story on BBC News