The Disproportionate Effects of Climate Change
By Saumya Vishnoi
In the past decade, 8 out of the 10 countries that were most affected by extreme weather events were developing nations. Specifically, a 2015 study projects that by 2100, incomes in poorer countries will decline by 75% compared to a world with no warming. In contrast, developed countries are projected to see their incomes increase. Another study reveals that Bangladesh's GDP per capita is 12% lower due to global warming than what it could have been - Brazil's is 25% and India's is 30%.
Statistics evidently show that these poorer nations will suffer the blunt of climate change. But why? There are several explanations but the primary factor is simply that these countries lack the resources to currently combat climate change. For example, Miami beach is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for climate change by installing pumps and raising the elevation of their streets. However, poorer countries don't have resources to prepare for any climate-related disasters. This, however, is an example of a positive feedback loop. The developing nations are hurt the most by climate change which hurts their economy by reducing the amount of food crops and destroying homes, which then leads the country to go further into poverty.
It is not fair to hold developing nations accountable for climate change when developed nations account for a vast majority of the amount of fossil fuels in the air. Therefore, developed nations must actually help their poorer counterparts to solve both problems: poverty and climate change. One important way this can happen is with richer countries building sustainable power grids in there poorer countries. This way, these countries can gain access to energy and alleviate themselves out of poverty in a clean way. Developed nations need to help solve the problem that they have exacerbated.
Sources:
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-climate-change-global-warming-part-2-story.html
Questions:
What do you think developed nations can do to help developing countries combat climate change?
What other factors contribute to this climate change inequality?
What surprised you the most about this climate change inequality?
20 comments:
This blog was well done, Saumya. It reminded me of the Indian woman in the documentary we watched in “Before the Flood.” We cannot force developing nations to halt fossil fuel usage, which inevitably stops their development, as developed nations such as the US are responsible for almost all fossil fuel combustion. It would be a hypocrisy and injustice. Doing so would also create a positive feedback loop in which developing countries get poorer and developed countries get richer. Climate inequality is a complex outcome of climate change.
Developed nations can help developing nations combat climate change by sharing technology and resources to mimic what the developed nations are doing in their own borders. If the effort is the same all around the world, then climate change will cease to be an issue. The inequality that is seen with this issue is something that can be easily solved with dedication and proper planning. Developed nations cannot ask others to change what they are doing if we are not willing to instill that change ourselves. Climate change is a global issue, and the world must come together to end it.
It has been over 300 years since the industrial revolution, and not a single country has been able to go full renewable all the time. How can we expect newly industrializing countries to be willing to make that jump when we haven’t even crossed that bridge ourselves. MDC’s need to lead by example, and sort out our energy consumption before we start critiquing theirs. It can’t hurt to get them on the right track towards sustainable energy, but it’s completely unfair to be dragging them through the mud to change their ways.
Developed nations can help developing nations reduce their pollution levels by providing them with money and new technology to help them switch to cleaner energy. This is crucial because if we don’t do something about this, the whole world will be affected. Also, developed nations have to invest more in renewable energy to make it more efficient and cheaper than natural gas, coal, and all of those energy things. If this happens, people will switch to renewable energy and that will drastically reduce global climate change.
The first thing developed countries should do to combat climate change (even in developing countries) is to reduce their fossil fuel use. Developed countries still use the most fossil fuels per capita than any developing country. If we take part in finding renewable resources, then developing countries may follow our footsteps to not do the same thing we did hundreds of year ago. Although the US may emit more carbon dioxide than a developing country, that CO2 is not limited to the US. Climate change is a global issue, and so what is our problem had become the entire world's problem. We should not be expecting developing countries to fix our problems and (not contribute to them more) by implementing practices that we are not doing ourselves. It takes the entire world to combat climate change, so effort must come from all sources.
Developed nations should not force developing nations to put a lot of money into renewable resources, as it is not fair for them to not get the ease of using fossil fuels like we did. Developed nations should try to reduce their own fossil fuel emissions, and switch to renewable first. Like in the documentary we watched, developed nations are facing climate change issues that the developed nations caused in the first place. They should help nations like India and China transition, instead of leaving the large expense to themselves.
Considering that developed nations consume more and emit more greenhouse gases in general, they could help developing countries - who oftentimes don't have consistent electricity generators - transition of clean energy to reduce consumption, they could also help set up departments to combat climate change. This climate change inequality comes from developed countries not wanting to take accountability for the huge role their consumption takes in climate change, since it affects everyone around us, we as world powers have to help all countries suffering as it will eventually affect us as well.
Developed countries are the ones using the most energy and are the biggest contributors to climate change. In order to help the devolving nations, we have to cut back on our energy usage and have to be more aware of how much energy we waste. Because energy is so available to us, we don’t think twice before we use it. By being more energy efficient, we can help start taking actions to reduce climate change and help developing nations out of this crisis.
In order for developed countries to help developing countries decrease their air pollution, developed countries need to decrease the amount of energy spent in per person as it is much greater than in developing countries, along with their efforts to reduce pollution in the atmosphere, developed countries could stop contributing to the pollution in developing countries and instead help reduce the present pollution in the atmosphere.
Developed nations have access to renewable resources for energy, but we do not use it. It would be beneficial to use the money we aren't spending on cleaner energy on plain energy for developing countries. These countries cannot even afford the basic energy that developing countries have access to. Another factor that creates this unequal energy distribution is the overcrowding and overpopulation in developing nations.
Developed nations can help developing nations combat climate change by helping the developing nations to switch over to more environmentally friendly sources such as solar and wind instead of relying on cheap, destructive sources such as coal and oil. They can also help this climate change inequality by helping out and changing their own use of fossil fuels as it is absurd to expect developing nations to change their own consumption of fossil fuels but not change the use of fossil fuels in developed nations.
You’re completely right, this entire situation is just unfair. Developed countries, such as the United States, pride themselves off of their amazing, money making, climate changing economy that has a direct effect on the destruction of our planet. The reason developing countries do not emit as much as these developed countries is due to the fact they are not developed. However, this also means that these countries will suffer the most from an issue they have had no part in. We as contributors to the suffering of these nations must act by acting against our governments regulations. We can’t allow our nation to make decisions that will harm the betterment of our planet's present and future.
Developed countries could stop contributing to the pollution in developing countries. Other factors that sintribute to this climate change inequality, are how developed countries have more resources to avoid and resolve problems that come along with climate change. Flooding for example, will be a bigger problem in developing nations, becuase it will be harder for them to bounce back. Nothing really surprised me about this. Climate change is a GLOBAL issue.
Developed nations could help developing countries by helping create better infrastructure and even introduce new technology that are more efficient and produce less carbon emissions. Some other factors that contribute to the climate change inequality is the geographic location. Different locations on the earth will respond to climate change differently. In all honesty, this is my first time hearing about climate change inequality therefore this whole situation is pretty much a surprise for me.
I think that developed nations can help developing countries combat climate change by providing them with the resources and technology they need to limit their usage. Climate change is affecting all countries, but the most developed are contributing the most. This isn’t fair because it's the poorer countries that suffer the most. Climate change is a global issue, and countries are reacting differently to the threats.
What surprised me the most was that developing countries are 79 times more likely to suffer climate related disasters than developed countries.
After reading this blog, I was very surprised about this topic, climate change inequality. Developed nations can help developing nations by not enforcing money into renewable resources such as India instead of leaving large expense to themselves, as we did, this will definitely help them combat climate change. Developed nations are facing climate issues because of investing in fossil fuels; we should begin to maintain or reduce our use of those emissions and switch to renewable resources.
Developed countries can help the developing by providing resources to create or harness renewable sources of energy that don't release greenhouse gases. Other factors can just be amount of money, fossil fuels cost less so people will go after them more than solar panels. What surprised me is that people aren't doing more to help the developing countries. We need to donate funds and resources.
Developed countries need to cut down on the amount of emissions they create because it is not fair to the developing countries who don’t create as much. To make sure this happens, developed countries need to switch to environmentally friendly energy such as solar or wind. They should also help developing countries catch up by sharing our technology and resources with them.
If developed countries develop new polices in order to stop climate change quickly, soon the developing countries will suffer the worst reprucusions. Developing countries can also help stop climate change by cutting down their emissions, the developing countries could also share their technology in order to help other countries combat climate change. We could give developing countries new renewable options for energy that don’t contribute to climate change.
Developing nations may limit their carbon emissions by reducing the amount of products and fossil fuels we produce. People who are contributing very little to climate change but are being effected more than those who have a larger footprint.I am surprised to see that people can be affected so quickly by the changes in our climate. It is very shocking that those who produce least per capita is hurting the most and that developed nations are doing little to combat it.
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