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More and more refugees end up in cities rather than in remote rural camps, officials from the UNHCR have just revealed - more than 50 per cent of the planet's 10.5 million refugees are now battling to get by in urban areas. Cities also contain more than 20 million internal refugees and displaced people. The UNHCR warned that the arrival of large numbers of people fleeing wars and hardship adds to the strain on public resources such as city health care and schools, and can send local prices of accommodation and food soaring.

And today, on the second day of climate talks in Copenhagen, the International Organization for Migration IOM has launched a report on "Migration, Environment and Climate Change" estimating that 20 million people were made homeless last year by sudden-onset environmental disasters that are set to amplify as global warming increases. But much of it is internal or cross-border migration, belying fears that millions of poor people will go to rich countries as a result of climate change. Although the number of people affected by natural disasters has more than doubled in recent years, there has hardly been any corresponding increase in international migration from these regions. Instead, the report argues,

most migration already occurring in response to both sudden and slow-onset natural disasters such as drought is mainly internal. Movements are from rural to rural areas or from rural to urban areas while international migration is mainly cross-border movement as long-distance international migration would require planning and resources that those who have lost homes and livelihoods are less likely to have.

That is, climate refugees are moving in droves to already-crowded cities. Absurd world: Others are leaving the fast life behind, like former Treasury Department official Neel Kashkari, reports the Washington Post. Kashkari lead former Treasury secretary Hank Paulson's Troubled Asset Relief Program TARP and then left Washington apruptly to move into a cottage in the Sierra Nevadas.  It is a tranquil new life, close to nature  - but you've got to be able to afford it. The countryside might eventually become a place for the happy few.