Climate Change —A Tale of Lost Agency
Climate change refers to the global changes in long-term climate conditions (e.g. precipitation, , temperature). Climate change is accompanied by immensely impactful implications for both humans and non-humans. While the Earth naturally undergoes certain climate variability, recent observations and changes have taken place at much faster and intense rates than naturally occur. Scientists have ascribed such rapid changes to anthropogenic activities, mainly the mass emission of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), which prevent the release of excess heat energy from the atmosphere. Since the western industrial revolution in 1760, atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased 45% (from 280 ppm to 415 ppm) from human consumption of fossil fuels, as well as deforestation, soil erosion, and land use modification amongst others.
Climate change and greenhouse gases emissions are critical to conversations of environmental justice. The earth’s atmosphere intermixes globally (Althor et al, 2016); it is not divided by nation or region, rather it is one, encapsulating shell that surrounds the entire earth. As a result, when one region emits a greenhouse gas, the repercussions of that gas can be burdened by an entirely different region.
Such has been the case since the Western industrial revolution of 1760. New manufacturing and industrial processes became common practice in Europe and the United States in 1760. Burning fossil fuels (e.g. coal, oil, gas) to create energy, Europeans and Americans were able to produce and consume more than ever before at unforeseen rates. The massive acceleration of production and consumption required the massive acceleration of harmful greenhouse gas emissions and huge increases in resource consumption.
In this way, the harmful implications from greenhouse gas emissions depend not on emission agency, but rather on a region’s climate vulnerability. Unsurprisingly, the greatest GHG emitters are the least vulnerable to the resulting climate change. These emitters reap the economic benefits of emissions in turn creating negative externalities for other regions to absorb. Simply, the people who are contributing most to climate change are not the ones who bear the burden of climate change.
Map of Global CO2 Emissions Per Capita :
Map of Climate Vulnerability (places that will be most affected by climate change):
The first thing you, like most, probably recognize from the images above is that the places lite-up in red in the first image (emitters) are not the same ones that are red in the second image (most heavily impacted by climate change). These maps visually illustrate environmental inequity of climate change.
The greatest contributors of greenhouse gases (thus the largest accelerators of climate change) are also the regions ranked as least vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such regions include the global West — Europe and the United States.
Contrarily, the regions that tend to emit the least greenhouse gasses are ranked as most affected (i.e climate vulnerable) by greenhouse gas induced climate change. As shown on the map above, African nations represent the majority of regions that are most heavily impacted by climate change.
Such climate changes incite both physical and economic repercussions; intensified physical environmental changes, like droughts, floods, and fires, jeopardize economic revenue generators, like agriculture and tourism industries.In this way, climate change is both an environmental, social, and economic injustice. The global West has caused immense climate harshening, and in doing so, they have hindered the well-being and livelihoods of those people and regions disproportionately implicated.
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Images: https://earthbound.report/2018/06/28/two-maps-climate-responsibility-and-climate-vulnerability/
