Climate Apartheid
The richest 10% of people in the world produce 50% of Earth’s fossil fuel emissions, while the poorest half of the world contributes a mere 10%.
An average person among the richest one percent emits 175 times more carbon than his or her counterpart among the bottom 10%. (The Guardian)
A report submitted to the U.N. in June of 2019 warned that human rights (along with many of the world’s poorest residents) may not survive the ongoing climate crisis.
The climate apartheid scenario we risk allows the wealthiest to pay to escape the disasters caused by climate change — wildfires, floods, droughts, overheating, hunger and conflict to name a few. The rest of the world will be left to suffer, unable to pay their way out of the situation.
According to U.N. reporter, Philip Alston, the world’s poorest populations will continue to lose access to water and food as migrant populations increase. Developing countries will bear 75% of the costs of climate crisis despite causing only a small fraction of the carbon emissions that cause the disasters.
Even if the current targets of the Paris Agreement are met, tens of millions of people will be pushed into poverty, displacement and hunger shortages. (UN)
The International Displacement Monitoring Center recorded that 17.2 million people were displaced due to disasters in 2018 alone.
The first six months of 2019 have seen seven million displaced, the highest midyear figure ever reported for displacements associated with disasters. (Extinction Rebellion)
On top of all of this, a 2018 report by the EPA found that people of color are much more likely to live near polluters and breathe polluted air.
The study finds that black people are exposed to about 1.5 times more particulate matter than white people, and that Hispanics had about 1.2 times the exposure of non-Hispanic whites. The study found that people in poverty had about 1.3 times more exposure than people above poverty. (The Atlantic)
These two articles include some wonderful activists of color:
9 Activists of Color Your Should Know by Teen Vogue
Meet the Young Activists of Color who Are Leading the Charge Against Climate Disaster by Vox
How to Help: Flooding in Jakarta
Dita Alangkara for Time
This isn’t being shown as much in the media, but Australia’s neighbor, Indonesia is dealing with a crisis of their own. There is severe flooding in Jakarta that’s been happening since New Year’s Eve and is one of the most powerful monsoons seen in over a decade.
66 people are confirmed dead, with more missing. Over 173,000 people have been displaced in Jakarta and nearby Bekasi City — and there’s more rain on the way.
The bad weather has caused blackouts and mudslides, hindering rescue efforts. Some roads are totally cut off due to the flooding.
The Red Cross has started to spray the city with a disinfectant meant to stop the spread of waterborne diseases. Warming temperatures and higher levels of rainfall cause the increase in these diseases — which is worrisome with our current climate crisis. (cnn)
Subsidence data courtesy of Irwan Gumilar of Geodesy Research Group of ITB | Satellite images via Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 via NY Times
Jakarta is also the fastest-sinking city in the world, which is largely caused by groundwater extraction in commercial and residential areas. It’s estimated that Jakarta is currently sinking at a rate of 25 centimeters per year, which can make flooding worse.
It’s sinking even faster than climate change is causing the sea to rise — so surreally fast that rivers sometimes flow upstream, ordinary rains regularly swamp neighborhoods and buildings slowly disappear underground, swallowed by the earth. (ny times)
The Indonesian government is planning on moving the country's capital to the island of Borneo to mitigate some of the problems Jakarta is expected to encounter due to climate change. That project is expected to take a decade and cost about $34 billion. (cnn)
How can you help?
I had a harder time finding places to donate for the Jakarta floods, but I’ve shared a few links for places to donate below:
Singapore Red Cross: Give Towards Jakarta Floods
Emergency Response: The Flooding Across Jakarta
Help Flood Victims Together with Kitabisa
Repeating this again because it’s important. In cases like this where the media isn’t highlighting what’s going on, it’s so important to SPREAD AWARENESS. One of the greatest challenges with climate change is its intangibility. The scope is just too large to grasp, and many of the most noticeable impacts are still too far removed from our daily lives. For some, climate change becomes either overwhelmingly challenging or abstract enough that it is easy to ignore. (Land Trust Alliance) If we communicate openly about what’s going on, it becomes easier to grasp and feel for something that you might not be seeing right in front of your face. This sparks change on so many different levels.
There have also been studies finding that people tend to believe that victims in racial groups different than their own suffer fewer “uniquely human” emotions like anguish, mourning, and remorse than victims of their own race. Vox wrote an article about this after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and it’s worth a read. You can also find the studies it cites here and here.