Environmental refugees in history

Under construction: Dec 10, 2005

Migration to Northeast China 1661-1680

• The encouraging migration policy of Qing Dynasty did not induce a large amount of migration from North to Northeast China;

• Then a large scale migration to Northeast China took place during 1661 to 1680 (4 peaks);

• This migration was mainly forced by the droughts in North China and the extreme flood of the Yellow River in 1662;

• 1 to 2 year time lag behind;

• The migration was an adaptive behaviour to the Extreme Climate Event (viewpoint of North China);

• The migration and cultivation was a response to Extreme Climate Event in North China in a far distance area (viewpoint of Northeast China);

• The prohibiting migration policy was more or less effective (25% in inflow compared to peaks).

• FANG Xiuqi, YE Yu & ZENG Zaozao, 1. school of Geography Beijing Normal University 2. Inst of Geogr. Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, email: xfan@bnu.edu.cn

Dust Bowl, United States,

The people – scores of millions of people- who are using the land in disregard of its capabilities are Displaced Persons in a much more serious sense than the few hundred thousands in European refuge camps.

- Road to Survival, William Vogt, William Sloane Associates, New York, 1948, page 107

South America

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Egyptian oracles

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Babylonian Empire

The end of the Babylonian Empire is usually written in terms of wars with the Persians. Little or no weight is given to the fact that Ur, once a thriving seaport, now lies 150 miles within a sterile desert.(Road to Survival, William Vogt, William Sloane Associates, New York, 1948, page 19)

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