Don't let the Paris climate talks ignore people displaced by global warming | Roberto Lovato

Increasing numbers of people are predicted to migrate as a result of rising sea levels and extreme weather events. We must treat them as victims not threats

We are all entering uncharted waters as the effects of climate change begin to create categories of migrants that have no precedent: migrants rendered stateless after their island nations disappear; migrants constituting a vast, roaming "environmental refugee" population; migrants fleeing climate-intensified wars and violence like that in Syria and Central America.

In a matter of days, global leaders will enter the most delicate and potentially catastrophic discussions about civilization and migration in history. The UN COP21 conference on climate in Paris could decide the fate of people being displaced by climate change - the number of which has been forecast to be as many as 1 billion people, with 200 million being the most widely cited figure.