champions inviolable borders against a borderless
(or transnational) phenomenon like climate change
is unsustainable. The likely effects of ecomigration
suggest strongly that states must adopt a new para-
digm, grounded in human security that will facilitate
ecomigration as an effective adaptation mechanism in
itself, and not react to it as a threat to national security.
Uncontrolled, a mass exodus of peoples is both unsus-
tainable and conflict-inducing.
The international state system is unprepared for,
and has inadequate change mechanisms to respond to
the movement of peoples climate change may induce.
The effects of climate change, not alone but in combi-
nation with other factors, will impact three of the key
components of state sovereignty: territory, permanent
population, and effective government. Two related
trends are significant: increasing population (and thus
increasing population density) and decreasing habit-
able land (as will occur due to sea-level rise, deserti-
fication, environmental degradation, and resource
scarcity). Taken together, these effects and trends will
test the resilience of states. A sustainable solution will
require greater flexibility toward territorial integrity,
greater rights for environmentally dispossessed per-
sons, or both.
An essential element of a sustainable solution is
consensus on what status environmentally dispos-
sessed persons should be given under international
law, and whether that status should be accompanied
by a right to migrate under enumerated circumstanc-
es. Environmentally dispossessed persons are likely
to be sufficiently unique in circumstance that a sepa-
rate convention addressing individual rights and state
responsibilities should be preferred. Though environ-
mentally dispossessed persons are similar in some
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