The World’s Poorest are Still Paying the Highest Price of Climate Change
How a worsening climate is making people poor, and making it harder to escape poverty.
Climate change impacts all facets of daily life. It is the reason that our air quality is declining, food sources are being impacted by drought, and housing developments are being dictated by flood risk. Governments around the world are working to mitigate these impacts by creating tax incentive programs for business owners to speed-up the development of green technology. However, right now, the world’s poorest are paying the highest price of climate change. Without significant intervention from both public and private entities, climate change is set to rapidly increase poverty and make it more difficult to escape.
According to estimates from the World Bank, climate change will be responsible for sending as many as 132 million people into extreme poverty by 2030. Extreme poverty is defined as living on $1.90 per day, the organization says. The driving factor for this increase will be access to food, which the increasing patterns of extreme weather in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are currently threatening. In all, the World Bank found 24 million people were pushed into extreme poverty in 2019 because of weather events alone.
For example, the people of Malawi spend as much as 63% of their income on food and beverages because climate change has caused dramatic increases in food prices, according to World Bank data. The International Monetary Fund estimates over half of Malawians live in poverty and 25% live in extreme poverty.
"Climate change threatens all of us, but the world’s poorest, who pollute the least, pay the highest price,” Michael Messenger, President and CEO of World Vision Canada, said in a statement.
“Climate change limits access to food and clean water for millions of people living on the world’s margins, while making them more vulnerable to natural disasters and disease. We will reverse decades of progress in reducing poverty and hunger without massive efforts to stop climate change,” he added.
While depictions of poverty across the world are more dramatic than what is shown about poverty in the U.S., the issue is no less pressing. According to researchers at the University of Chicago and University of Notre Dame, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the U.S. to experience its largest spike in poverty in decades. Total poverty climbed from 9.3% in June 2020 to 11.7% by November’s end. This happened despite the nation’s unemployment numbers tumbling by over 4% during the same timeframe.
In March, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) stated in its annual Homelessness Assessment Report that the increase of poverty correlated with a 2.2% increase in homelessness across the country in 2020 — the largest increase since the 1960’s. Over 580,000 currently sleep rough on the streets of U.S. cities, according to HUD data. For the first time, the number of individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness was greater than the number of people who live in shelters. These totals were collected through the annual Point in Time Count, which occurred before the pandemic began.
But, poverty isn’t just about getting a home or losing one. It’s about having to overcome increased incidences of health issues and decreased access to jobs, opportunities, and banking to attain even the most basic means of survival. Nearly 40% of the population lives in an area with unclean air, according to the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” report. People of color are three-times more likely to live in these areas as their White counterparts, the report says. Meanwhile, The Shriver Center on Poverty Law found more than 77,000 Americans currently reside near Superfund sites — often the contaminated remnants of manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills, and mining sites. On top of that, 60% of the nation’s public housing stock is near these sites.
Families who live near Superfund sites often see increased levels of pediatric cancer and behavioral issues in their children. A study by the Center for Environmental Health & Justice found that living near a Superfund site has been correlated with increased rates of disciplinary incidents at school, repeating grade levels, lower standardized test scores, and decreased cognitive functioning. These issues make it difficult — if not impossible — for impoverished children to break the cycle of poverty.
Meanwhile, the cost of basic items like food and shelter have both dramatically increased. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) anticipates food-away-from-home and food-at-home prices to rise between 1% and 2% in 2021. The increase will be primarily driven by increases in meat prices. Beef and veal prices are expected to climb by 9.6%, pork prices by 6.3%, and poultry prices by 5.6%, according to the USDA.
Housing became increasing unaffordable in 2020 as well. Many homeowners that planned to sell before the pandemic decided otherwise, thus creating a historic supply shortage that sent home sales prices through the roof. Meanwhile, the patchwork protections put in place for renters exposed many people to eviction. The Center for Disease Control issued a moratorium on evictions in March 2020, but it only applied to approximately 46% of renters, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. President Joe Biden has extended the federal moratorium through June 30, 2021. However, states like Texas are lifting their eviction regulations without resolving outstanding brouhahas between renters and landlords over accepting federal rental assistance payments. In turn, hundreds of thousands could be put out of their homes.
Without a more concerted effort by lawmakers and private citizens to fully respond to the climate change crisis, Tony Rinaudo, Senior Climate Action Advisor for World Vision, says a tsunami of climate related disasters threatens to wipe out decades of development advances.
“Climate change, ecological crises, land degradation and pollution have put all of us in grave danger,” he said in a statement.
