4 Causes of Climate Change Inequality
“Populations already vulnerable to human rights abuses face the biggest challenges in adapting to climate change.”
— United Nations
Marginalised groups are most likely to experience the effects of climate change, and so, more likely to be impacted by it. Decreased snow cover, intensive rainfall, heatwaves, droughts, floods, cyclones or rising sea levels have been associated with an increase in climate change-related extreme weather events that have affected these groups disproportionately.
We’ll explore just a few of the reasons some people are more susceptible than others and why leading climate activists say the climate burden should be shared equally amongst us all.
Economic Vulnerability
Lack of infrastructure in areas of deprivation means economically vulnerable people are at a disadvantage even before an extreme weather event occurs. People on low incomes or living in poverty are less likely to have insurance policies or savings. If displaced, they may also lack transportation to get to work. For all these reasons, the economically vulnerable struggle to rebuild their homes and livelihoods when impacted by extreme weather due to the effects of climate change.
Photo by Jonathan Middlekoop on Unsplash
On the 10 anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Barrack Obama said, “Too many kids grew up surrounded by violent crime, cycling through substandard schools where few had a shot to break out of poverty. And so as a body weakened already, undernourished already when the storm hit, there were no resources to fall back on.”
2. Language Barriers
There have been incidents where linguistic minorities have been unable to translate warnings about extreme weather events.
Image courtesy earth observatory.nasa.gov
In March 2019, Members of Australia’s indigenous communities in the Northern Territory were unprepared for the impacts of Tropical Cyclone Trevor because The Bureau of Meteorology translated information related to health warnings but information about the path of the cyclone was only in English.
3. Proximity to Industrial Polluters
In minority and low-income communities, industrial polluters like landfills and waste management fill the air, soil, and water with contaminates.
According to Food Print.org, Air emissions from Factory Farming’s large-scale animal waste application can subject workers and nearby communities to potent and potentially harmful odours and other types of air pollution. This can be critically damaging to the health of vulnerable people with pre-existing health conditions or respiratory problems
4. Geographical Vulnerability
“We observe the minute changes that are occurring in the environment on a daily basis. We are the guardians of the environment, in fact, because we’re on the land every day … we’re the early warning system for the rest of the world”
— Sheila Watt-Cloutier Canadian Inuit Environmental Activist
Livelihoods of many communities that reside at seasides, forests, deserts, small islands and the Arctic Circle are not only more likely to experience the effects of climate change, but they are also stewards of the land and critical to safeguarding the planet.
Photo courtesy of Visit Greenland on Unsplash
Canadian Inuit Activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier shares her personal story and explores the parallels between protecting the Arctic and the survival of Inuit culture in the face of environmental degradation in her book, The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Fight to Protect the Arctic and Save the Planet from Climate Change
In Kenya, Chad’s pastoralists must migrate because dry zones have spread and fertile farming and grazing areas are shrinking. Not only does migrating disrupt the delicate balance between Chad’s different ethnicities, lifestyles and livelihoods, but it also causes conflict as indigenous people fight for survival.
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is a Mbororo pastoralist and President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT). In this. video, she explains what it’s like to live in a place where the effects of climate change are already being felt.
We’ve listed only a few of the factors that contribute to climate change inequality; it has already affected a cross-section of people worldwide. Infrastructure, access to food, gender-based social constructs and other types of institutionalised discrimination can also be determiners of how people cope with the impact of extreme weather events. The flip side is that the more money and other resources you have, the greatest chance you have to adapt & rebuild your life when disaster strikes.
“The international community must unite and support people who are most vulnerable to the impacts of the changing climate. We need more action to avert, minimise and address the loss and damage that is already occurring from climate change.”
— Cop26 Explained
The magnitude of the impact of climate change is overwhelming. We can’t stop climate change immediately nor can anyone control the weather. So what can we do?
As well as tackling climate change in our homes and communities, we can hold ourselves, industries and governments accountable. If we share the weight of the climate burden by talking to, listening to and caring for each other, we might just be able to make the world a better place, literally.
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