Gradual environmental changes, such as desertification, coastal and soil erosion, tend to be less dramatic and therefore attract less attention than natural disasters. However, gradual and slow-onset changes in the environment tend to affect a
larger number of people and will continue to do so in the long term. The consequences of climate change on migration present humanity with an unprecedented challenge. The numbers of storms, droughts and floods have increased threefold over the last 30 years with devastating affects on vulnerable communities, particularly in the developing world.Extreme environmental events such as cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes tend to capture the media headlines, but it is gradual changes in the environment that are likely to have a much greater impact on the movement people in the future. For example, over the last 30 years, twice as many people have been affected by droughts as by storms (1.6 billion compared with approximately 718 million). It is important, however, not to view migration as simply the failure of communities to adapt to climate change. Migration has always been one of the ways in which people have chosen to adapt to changing environments. Migration can also help those left behind in environmentally degraded areas.Discussions of migration triggered by environmental changes, usually see migration as the result of a failure to adapt to the environment, rather than as a possible way of enhancing adaptation to climate change.