Climate Change Inequities: Inequities Caused by Climate Change

Climate change has been damaging lives of people and species all over the planet. Some populations are more prepared to adapt to changes in climate than others due to resource availability or varying levels of industrial development. Additionally, some populations that have contributed a lot to climate change are not experiencing the negative consequences, while other populations that have not significantly contributed to global warming are suffering the consequences on a daily basis. There is an unfair distribution of harmful effects caused by climate change, and these unfair situations are the climate change inequities that this website will begin address.

There are many additional points of intersection under the umbrella category of intergenerational inequity that are not explored in depth at this time. Some of the inequities discussed in this section also cross barriers of social groups including gender, race, socioeconomic class or status, geographical separation from resources, and of course interspecies inequity. While many of this groups will be at least touched on if not discussed in depth, it is important to keep in mind the various facets in which climate change inequities may be considered.

There are three major categories of inequities:

intragenerational
intergenerational
interspecies

Intragenerational inequity

Intragenerational inequity is the inequity between people of the same generation.

Photograph: Hassan Bipul/DFID [http://www.eco-business.com/news/developing-nations-join-hands-combat-climate-change/]

Rich versus Poor Countries

For example, the United States and the European Union are currently adding about one quarter of all global CO2 emissions. Its citizens have the highest standard of live on the Earth and do not feel the consequences of the global warming much. On the other hand, thousands of citizens in Bangladesh have already been displaced from the coastal region by the rising sea levels while it is contributing only 0.3 % of global CO2 emissions. In 2008, it was projected that about 20 million! Bangladesh citizens will become climate change refugees by the end of 2100 (Jamieson, 2009). Now, this number rose to 18 million by 2050. In addition to the physical displacement due to the sea level rise, the land for agriculture currently used in Bangladesh may become flooded and not useful for raising crops. Due to this Bangladesh will have to turn to importing food that is already a scarce resource. Cities that are far away from the coastline are getting more and more annual floods as well. Atiq Rahman, a director of the Bangladesh Center for Advances Studies, argues that Bangladesh citizens who have already been displaced by the rising sea levels should be allowed to migrate to the U.S., a country that historically contributed the most to the global warming. This is a fair solution to the current injustice.

Many Pacific islanders are vulnerable to the sea level rise. For example, Tuvalu nation consisting of about 11,000 people lives on islands only 4.5 meters above sea level (J. Broome, Climate Matters, 2012). Add the projected sea level rise of 1-2 meters and seasonal tides and their homeland is becoming an uninhabitable zone. While Tuvaluans have not contributed to the CO2 emissions rise at all, they are experiencing the damage.

For maps of countries' contribution and countries' vulnerabilities to climate change, visit the The Carbon Map project.

Rich versus Poor Citizens within Countries

While there is an injustice between rich vs poor countries, rich and poor people within these countries experience climate change effects differently. For example, when the hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. coast, it damaged life of many poor Americans. Their income and social status did not allow them to quickly move to another place or buy a new home. A rich family would have resources to adjust to the damage much faster. This shows how income inequality influences people's ability to adapt to disasters caused by climate change. In fact, the general prediction for the planet is that the poor will suffer the most from climate change negative consequences.

Usually, income inequality comes along with racial and gender injustices. For example, if a certain racial group is more likely to be in a poorer social class, it will be more vulnerable to the consequences of global warming.

Total versus Per Capita CO2 Emissions

The global temperatures rise is fueled by the total amount of CO2 emissions. By looking at the total emissions by each country, one can make a list of countries who as total have contributed the most to global warming and come up with a fair decision that these countries should decrease their emissions. However, if one looks at the per capita emissions, one will see a different list of countries. For example, China takes second place after the U.S. in contributing to historical rise in global temperatures. However, it contributed 3 times less of temperature increase than the U.S. Also, China's contribution to temperatures rise per person is ten times smaller than that of the U.S. Should China be held accountable for causing climate change on the same level as the U.S.?

Image Source

China and India despite being huge contributors to global warming were exempt from the Kyoto protocol abiding agreements to decrease its CO2 emissions because the welfare of these countries' citizens was much worse than of other industrialized countries. However, these countries are still adding to the temperature increase. China's total contribution to global warming in the past 10 years have increased dramatically and is increasing following a geometric progression. India's contribution have not increased in the same way though. This comparison shows the diversity and dynamics among countries' CO2 contributions and raises difficult questions of whether it is fair for other to suffer consequences of global warming while other countries are catching up with the western standard of welfare.

Intergenerational Inequity

Intergenerational inequity is inequity between people of different generations. Carbon emissions tend to stay in the atmosphere for about 100 years. Thus, CO2 emitted several dozens years ago by the industrialized countries is present in the atmosphere today harming people all over the globe today. This shows how the generation today is unfairly experiencing harm caused by the previous generations. The map below shows how nations have contributed to the current global warming.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129523.100-the-seven-deadly-sinners-driving-global-warming.html#.U2_BFtJdWSo

Not only the injustice is in the fact that some countries historically have contributed more to global warming than other countries, but also in the fact that burning fossil fuels in the great amounts by those countries allowed its citizens to gain wealth and resources that make their lives not only better but more adaptable to the global warming consequences. People who didn't gain welfare from industrialization may be more vulnerable to the negative consequences of climate change today.

Another intergenerational equality is between present and future generations. Knowing our current impact on global climate and being able to predict consequences of further warming due to human activities, we should decide on the fair level of consumption of resources today that will not cause inequity for future generations in the future in the form of smaller amount of available resources or smaller number of opportunities to gain at least the same welfare level as the current generation is experiencing. The graph below shows the relation between time and wellbeing and what trajectory is deemed sustainable.