Climate change often is framed as an impending environmental crisis - one that has the potential to change the character of the world we live increasing the intensity of storms; creating droughts; raising sea levels; and driving many plant and animal species to extinction.   But climate change is not just an environmental concern.  How we choose to respond to the effects of global climate change is an issue of justice for the world’s poor. This is because the impacts of global warming weigh most heavily on those who are the most vulnerable, the least able to protect themselves and the least responsible for creating the problem.  These are the low income communities, indigenous populations, and most often people of color. 

 

People of economic means can respond to the issue of global warming with discussions of carbon trading, hybrid cars, solar panels and green buildings.  But the majority in our world does not and will not have these options.  For those most vulnerable, the effects of a warming planet are not necessarily something of a distant future but are the reality of today.

　

A Crisis of Epoch Proportions

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the poor and people of color in New Orleans keenly illustrates the human cost of increasing storm intensities due to the warming of our oceans.  Heat waves in the U.S., Western Europe and Asia in recent years have been linked to the deaths of tens of thousands of people, many of them children, the elderly and low-income and minority populations. The survival of Inuit and other indigenous communities in far northern latitudes is in peril due to softening ice, the loss of food species and reduced land area for hunting.  In many other places in the world, poor and indigenous populations face water shortages due to melting glaciers. 

 

The second working group report of the IPCC outlined negative impacts of global warming to low-income communities and developing countries, stating that these communities would be hit the hardest and would be least equipped to adapt:

• By 2020, millions will face water shortages

• By 2050, millions of Africans will suffer from hunger due to agricultural changes from global warming

• The cost of adapting to global warming may be as much as 10% of economic output, a price tag that many developing countries cannot afford

• Failure to curb emissions could lead to ocean rise that will displace millions of people and go on for centuries.

Yet - despite all the signs and cries of alarm from scientific, faith and educational leaders, we remain rooted in lifestyles and decisions that continue to march us toward disaster.   Talk with your local, state and federal officials and ask them to craft climate and energy bills that will help all people and avoid the devastating impacts predicted with climate change.   Ask that mitigation funding for low-income communities and people of color is included in all climate-related legislation.  Click here to learn more about climate mitigation and pending legislation.