While the richest nations on Earth, the United States, China, the European Union, the UK and Soviet Russia are all the largest producers of climate-altering and environmentally-destructive greenhouse gases, it will be the smaller, Second and Third World nations who will bear the brunt of the environmental transformation.
These nations lack the economic capacity and social capital necessary to fight against the effects of climate change due to their reduced infrastructure and vulnerability to rising seas, wildfires and the increasing destructive capacity of storms.
Making matters worse, even in those developed nations, the industrial pollution of those societies is concentrated in the communities of the poor, minority and disenfranchised. The current climate crisis was thought to be a problem for future enlightened communities to deal with but it is proving more and more likely that we will have to handle these challenges today and we are not ready for the complexities caused by climate challenges.
This is the Climate Gap. Richer nations deny responsibility and accountability for climate disasters occurring in the Third World apparently without realizing the interconnectedness of all climate disasters affecting international food sources, ocean husbandry, as well as worldwide trade and commerce.
The question we have to start asking is presented in Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything, where she asks several important questions:
• How do we deal with the increasing intensity of the climate crisis as it coarsens our debate, particularly where the poor and disenfranchised are concerned?
There are increasingly polarizing movements by conservative groups worldwide promoting hatred of minority groups which are sure to escalate in the future. What is being done to prevent such organizations from degrading into violence?
• Each disaster gains less and less resources as insurance agencies and eventually governments will fight to pay less out in damages to maintain the economic advantages those industries enjoyed. Who will pay for the losses of people who live in climate challenged regions when insurance companies begin to lose more money than they are earning?
• #Retrorebuilding is the current model being established by the United States, while other nations work toward #futureproofing their societies, learning from each new extreme in climate change. What can we do to make our societies more resilient socially?
• The future of climate change will include social, cultural and economic challenges we are currently unprepared to meet. One of the greatest will be climate migration. It is estimated there will be 250 million people displaced by the year 2050.
• There are currently no models in place which can support such staggering and yet conservative numbers. What can we do to begin crafting responsible legislation about climate migration into and out of the United States and other nations around the world?
These and many other questions are going to be considered on The Climate Gap on Climate Change by the Elements at 5:00 PM PDT.
Climate Change by the Elements
A live-cast of The Good Men Project, produced by Lisa Hickey
Show hosts are: Thaddeus Howze and Carol Bluestein
Dial-in access: 1-701-801-1220
Access code: 934-317-242 (then press #)
You can also reach the show via your computer at:
https://www.startmeeting.com/wall/934317242
Share link: https://fb.me/e/4qzwpyeL0
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This post is republished on Medium.
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