GC: npl
S: UNHCR – https://bit.ly/2SBbr4v (last access: 15 July 2016); WilsCent – https://bit.ly/2E0Wm4d (last access: 15 July 2016).
N: 1. – environmental (adj): 1887, “environing, surrounding,” from environment + -al (1). Ecological sense by 1967. Related: Environmentally (1884).
– refugees (npl): refugee (n.), 1680s, from French réfugié, noun use of past participle of réfugier “to take shelter, protect,” from Old French refuge. First applied to French Huguenots who migrated after the revocation (1685) of the Edict of Nantes. The word meant “one seeking asylum,” till 1914, when it evolved to mean “one fleeing home” (first applied in this sense to civilians in Flanders heading west to escape fighting in World War I). In Australian slang from World War II, reffo.
2. People forced to leave his or her places of residence, either temporarily or permanently, due to changes in the environment caused by ecological disasters, pollution or climate change.
3. The UK section of UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) acknowledges the existence of environmental refugees but stresses that there are fundamental differences between them and (Geneva Convention) refugees which should be kept distinct, thus preferring to define them as “environmental migrants.”
4. Even though some authors consider the terms “environmental refugee” and “climate refugee” to be synonyms, others consider “climate refugees” to be a subcategory of “environmental refugees.” A “climate refugee” is a person forced to leave his or her place of residence, either temporarily or permanently, due to environmental disruptions caused by climate change such as a rise in sea level or drought.
S: 1. OED – http://goo.gl/22UfkV; http://goo.gl/3eYtZK (last access: 15 July 2016). 2. TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/xUjQPs (last access: 15 July 2016); FCB. 3 & 4. TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/xUjQPs (last access: 15 July 2016).
SYN: environmental migrants, eco-refugees.
S: TERMIUM PLUS – http://goo.gl/xUjQPs (last access: 15 July 2016); GDT – http://goo.gl/zDB1Wo (last access: 15 July 2016).
