Thus, war is not inevitable. By addressing some of the underlying pressures behind it, some conflicts can be mitigated and refugees enabled to stay home. But today some 34 wars rage in the world, three times as many as took place at any one time during the fifties and twice as many as during the sixties. And while the number of wars has grown little since the early eighties, civilian losses account for a growing percentage of casualties. Thus, people have had good reason to flee.
Famine forces many people from their communities.
By 1994, one-sixth of the population of Mali and Burkina Faso had been uprooted as a result of desertification. The number of these migrants is likely to increase as populations grow quickly in countries with scarce water and cropland. Other people are moved to make way as residential and agricultural areas are flooded by dams, as buildings are devoured by roads, and shantytowns are razed to make way for coal-burning plants. During the past decade, an estimated 80-90 million people have been resettled as a result of programs to build dams and transportation alone. Health problems have led citizens of the former Czechoslovakia to move from industrial regions where life expectancies are below the national average to cleaner areas.