Colombian court recognizes environmental refugees

The Constitutional Court found that people can be forcibly displaced by "sudden environmental catastrophes or processes of gradual environmental deterioration such as climate change, deforestation or ocean acidification," according to a statement it issued late Monday. Colombia already has millions of people displaced by six decades of armed conflict. In a groundbreaking case for Latin America, the court ruled in an application by a rural couple who said they had been forced from their land by...