“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”
Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion applies not only to physics, but to many other aspects of the physical world as well. Input becomes output, inhalation leads to exhalation, and giving leads to receiving.
In a world where money often gifts its owner with a blissful existence, the actions of the rich may not have a tangible and immediate reaction, but the effects can be felt halfway around the world without the catalyst ever even knowing it.
In recent years, the extensive burning of fossil fuels has caused gas to build up in the atmosphere, trapping increased heat from the sun’s rays. This heat has led to a global rise in average temperature, which has changed international weather patterns for the worse; this includes an increase in floods, hurricanes, blizzards, and droughts.
While society would like to think that it rains the same on everyone, this is not the case.
In America, the “Urban Heat Island Effect” influences large and highly populated cities, causing daytime temperatures to be up to7 degrees higher in comparison to less-populated regions. This is due to the concentration of buildings and structures that absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat combined with the limited amount of greenery in these areas. However, according to a Harvard study by Joyce Klein Rosenthal, poorer parts of cities are even hotter than their more affluent counterparts.
In these underprivileged areas, there are fewer trees to absorb energy, and buildings are made of cheaper material that tends to retain a larger amount of heat. The people inhabiting these buildings often partake in strenuous outdoor work in a hotter environment and return home to a place that usually lacks air conditioning. This makes less-fortunate people more likely to suffer heat strokes or other heat-related illnesses.
Nevertheless, people in America are hardly the only ones struggling.
According to a study published in Nature Scientific Reports, wealthy countries contribute to the most climate change but feel the least effects from it; ten percent of countries rank in the top five for emissions and the bottom 20% for vulnerability. This includes the USA, Australia, and much of Europe. Meanwhile, two-thirds of countries with low or moderate emissions have proven to experience the most vulnerability towards the effects of climate change. One such country is the nation of Kiribati.
Kiribati is a nation with a population of about 105,000 people. It is spread out over 33 atolls and reef islands and can be found halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its elevation is only about six feet above sea level, which has become a problem as climate change continues to provide more potent negative effects on the people.
Recently, the ocean has become much more warm and acidic than ever before. This, along with the rising sea level, has caused a decline in marine life, less fertile soil, and less inhabitable land in Kiribati. Additionally, the coral seawall that surrounds much of Kiribati has been weakened by coral bleaching, a direct effect of climate change, and can no longer hold water back on some high tides. Eita, an island in Kiribati, has been known to demonstrate negative responses to the compromised seawall about two to three times a year on certain high tides.
When the ocean level rises beyond the manageable level for the bleached coral, streams and lakes of seawater form on the island, making it extremely difficult for citizens to travel everyday distances. Garbage and waste flow through these streams and into homes, and livestock drown in the water. Some homes simply do not survive this overtaking of water. Furthermore, all freshwater wells are submerged with salt water, preventing the people from accessing water, a basic human necessity.
While some have the luxury of never worrying about having a bed to sleep on, people are forced to watch as their home is washed away like nothing more than a footprint in the sand.
Meeteka, a 22-year-old man living on Eita, mentions how this never happened when he was a child. Soon to become a father, he tells an interviewer, “I don’t know anything about my child’s future[...] I don’t even know if Kiribati will exist when she grows up.”
As the issue worsens, the government of Kiribati is forced to produce alternate ideas and solutions. The nation’s president, Anote Tong, has pushed for the construction of seawalls and planting mangrove trees, but is also preparing for the worst.
The Tong administration introduced a program called “Migration with Dignity” whose goal is to make citizens of Kiribati seem more enticing to foreign labor markets, thus making the process of migration less difficult. The government has also purchased an eight-kilometer plot of land on Fiji to act as an emergency evacuation location. However, this is not ideal for many reasons, one of which being the fact that Fijan citizens have previously expressed their unwelcome feelings towards the idea of foreigners living in their backyard.
Generally, humanity is not prepared for tens of thousands of more refugees due to the effects of climate change; international refugee law does not have a category for climate change, and attempts to create one have been fruitless.
If action is not taken soon, the repercussions to humanity’s environmental exploitation will be detrimental. According to a report by the World Bank, by 2030, more than 100 million people could be driven into poverty, largely because of difficulties producing crops that stem from climate change. In ten years, there is expected to be a 5% decline in crop yields, and by 2080, this number could rise to 30%. Poor households may not be able to handle higher food prices, and poorer communities around the world will suffer because of their inability to withstand the harsher weather that climate change generates.
Quoting a 2016 report by the United Nations, “structural inequalities increase the exposure of vulnerable groups to climate hazards”. Essentially, poorer people live in areas that are more prone to damage by climate change like mud slides, water contamination, and flooding, and they lack the funds to recover from such events. Regions in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia will be hit hardest with hotter temperatures, possibly even rendering these areas uninhabitable.
After realizing how disproportionately the poor are affected by this, one might wonder if there possibly exists a solution.
Countries collectively must agree to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and adapt to any inevitable, irreversible warming that already occurs. One such example of international collaboration is the 2016 Paris Agreement, which was initiated by the United Nations in order to limit total global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. However, the conference that preceded the signing of the agreement was not as successful as one would hope due to nuances in the desires of individual leaders and the disagreements that consequently arose. Additionally, America has recently left the Paris Agreement in order to protect its economy, which is seen by many as a step back from America’s title as a world leader in climate action.
Speaking on behalf of his citizens, Kiribati’s President, Anote Tong, says “it’s the game of negotiating [...] But for us it’s not a game. It’s a matter of survival.” While the leaders of the world argue over a fraction of a degree, people’s lives are being ripped away from them. As stated by the United Nations, it is the responsibility of those who are wealthier and with higher emissions to provide aid to struggling countries like Kiribati with geographical inequalities in safety, but it seems as though the greed of privileged nations has prevented such aid thus far.
It is true that each individual must take the appropriate actions at home to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions, but solutions for poorer people facing difficulty because of climate change mostly lie within governments. It is the responsibility of each and every person to vote in support of climate actions and spread awareness of the reality of climate change in their communities in order to ensure public approval and encouragement of positive environmentalist behaviors.
Unfortunately, many individuals in American society proceed to wake up every day and lavishly, carelessly, and indulgently live a life forged by plastic and burning gas as the innocent bear the consequences of their selfish actions. In accordance with Newton’s Law, every action taken to worsen climate change by someone with privilege has an equal and opposite reaction somewhere in the world, whether it is in their own backyard or for a child oceans away. The physics of human nature and the development of modern technology may be what potentially devastates the world past the point of no return. It seems something out of a remote dystopian novel, but it is a reality that only few are aware of and even fewer are willing to change.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written by volunteer Rachel Girgis
Date Published: 11/17/2020
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources:
"Climate Change." National Geographic, 28 Mar. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/climate-change/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
"Heat Island Effect." United States Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/heatislands.
Liljas, Per. "The Paris Climate Deal May Be Too Little, Too Late for the Islanders of Kiribati." Time, 10 Dec. 2015, The Paris Climate Deal May Be Too Little, Too Late for the Islanders of Kiribati. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
"Report: Inequalities Exacerbate Climate Impacts on Poor." UN.org, United nations, 3 Oct. 2016, www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/10/report-inequalities-exacerbate-climate-impacts-on-poor/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
"US is Leaving the Paris Agreement: How That Will Affect Efforts to Stop Climate Change." Msn.com, 2 Nov. 2020, www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/us-is-leaving-the-paris-agreement-how-that-will-affect-efforts-to-stop-climate-change/ar-BB1aCpI7?ocid=uxbndlbing. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
Worland, Justin. "Climate Change Could Drive 100 Million People Into Poverty by 2030." Time, 8 Nov. 2015. Justin Worland, time.com/4104289/climate-change-poverty-world-bank/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
"How Climate Change Unfairly Burdens Poorer Countries." Time, 5 Feb. 2016. Justin Worland, time.com/4209510/climate-change-poor-countries/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
"Why Climate Change Affects Poor Neighborhoods the Most." Time, 3 Oct. 2014, time.com/3457668/climate-change-poor-neighborhoods/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have a suggestion or a question? Use the ‘Contact Us’ feature on the homepage or email ebwriterscoalition@gmail.com
Comments