Climate change and poverty

C Rajendra Prasad Swain
The word climate change is more familiar among many people in the world. Climate is the longterm statistical expression of short-term weather. Climate can be defined as “expected weather”. When changes in the expected weather occur, we call these climate changes.
They can be defined by the differences between average weather conditions at two separate times. Climate change is already affecting our lives and the places we live, and has the potential to dramatically impact the lives of future generations. Global warming makes many species of plants and animals face extinction.
The studies show that over million species of plants and animal will be nearly extinct by 2050 due to the climate change. The terms global warming and climate change are often used interchangeably, but the two phenomena are different. Global warming is the rise in global temperatures due to an increase of heat-trapping carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
Climate change, on the other hand is a more general term that refers to change in many climate factors (such as high temperature and rainfall) around the world. These changes are happening at different rates and in different ways. For example, the United States has become wetter over the 20th century, while the Sahel region of Central Africa has become drier.
Why is the Climate Changing?
Natural variability
Climate change is a normal part of the Earth’s natural variability, which is related to interactions among the atmosphere, ocean, and land, as well as changes in the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth. The geologic record includes significant evidence for large-scale climate changes in Earth’s past.
Human-induced change
Greenhouse Gases certain naturally occurring gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O), trap heat in the atmosphere causing a greenhouse effect. Burning of fossil fuels, like oil, coal, and natural gas is adding CO2 to the atmosphere. The current level is the highest in the past 650,000 years. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes, “that most of the observed increase in the globally averaged temperature since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.”
Climate Change and Poverty
Although the carbon footprint of the poorest billion people is about 3 percent of the world’s total footprint, loss of life is expected to be 500 times greater in Africa than in the wealthy countries. The biggest impact could be in food and water shortages, which in the past have led to war and mass migration.
Prof. Hugh Montgomery of UCL’s Institute for human health and performance linked those 21 recent conflicts to water instability is due to the climate change and the most affected are the poor.
Despite improvements in health, 10 million children still die every year, more than 200 million children under five are not developing as well as they should, 800 million people are hungry, and 1,500 million people do not have clean drinking water.
From the best available data of 6,500 climate related disasters from 1980, it is estimated that the number of people affected by climate disasters will rise by 133 million to 375 million a year on average by 2015. Most of the people who are vulnerable to this disaster are the poor’s especially the moderate farmers, fishermen communities and tribal.
This does not include people hit by disasters such as wars, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
For instance more than 50 per cent of the inhabitants of Mumbai live in slums. Many of them are located on reclaimed swamps. In 2005, widespread flooding in the city caused the death of around 900 people; most of them hit by landslips and collapsed buildings.
Hunger is on the increase, caused by drought, higher population density and an increasing demand for meat and dairy products in emerging economies.
It is estimated that up to a billion people will be forced out of their homes by 2050 due to climate change, environmental degradation, and conflict.
Heat waves such as occurred in Europe in 2003, which caused up to 70,000 “excess” death, will become more common, as will hurricanes, cyclones and storms, causing flooding and injuries. “we have not just underestimated but completely neglected and ignored this issue” said Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet.
Again the sufferers the poor’s since they do not have enough way to get treatment. In India, the number of hospitals is very less when compared to the population as per the census.
He believed that mitigating the impact of rising temperatures was urgent. “Every year we delay, the costs go up. We are setting up a world for our children and grandchildren that may be extremely turbulent,” he added.
Recent released World Bank Report Climate change could push more than 100 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 by disrupting agriculture and fuelling the spread of Malaria and other diseases, the World Bank has said in a report. Released just weeks ahead of a UN climate summit in Paris, the report highlighted how the impact of global Warming is borne unevenly, with the world’s poor woefully unprepared to deal with climate shocks such as rising seas or severe droughts. “They have fewer resources and receive less support from family, community, the financial system, and even social safety nets to prevent, cope and adapt,” the Washington-based World Bank said.
Carbon emissions are expected to rise for many years as China, India and other developing countries expand the use of fossil fuels to power their economies.
But efforts to protect the poor, such as generally improving access to health care and social safety nets, and targeted measures to upgrade flood defences and deploy more heat-tolerant crops could prevent most of the negative consequences of climate change on poverty, the Bank said.
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