E-Weekly-5/30 Green Earth Movement An E-Newsletter for the cause of Environment, Peace, Harmony and Justice Remember - “you and I can decide the future”

E-Weekly-5/30

Green Earth Movement

An E-Newsletter for the cause of Environment, Peace, Harmony and Justice

Remember - “you and I can decide the future”

CLIMATE CHANGE

AND POVERTY

As the planet heats, climate patterns change, with more extreme and unpredictable weather across the world – many places will be hotter, some colder. Some wetter, others drier. We know the planet has warmed by an average of nearly 1ºC in the past century. Might not sound much, but on a global scale that's a huge increase that's creating big problems for people and wildlife.

The poorest people and the poorest countries are being hit hardest by

climate change. Yet they bear least responsibility for greenhouse gas

emissions.

The 2009 Human Impact Report claims that 300,000 people a year are alreadydying from the effects of climate change – and a further four billion are vulnerable to effects .

HOW THE CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS THE POOR MOST

1. Drought and water shortages2. Floods and other extreme weather3. Crop failures and food insecurity4. Reduced agricultural productivity5. Loss of low-lying lands and islands6. Desertification (the gradual transformation

of habitable land into desert)7. Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services8. Spread of diseases, such as malaria

1. DROUHGT AND WATER SHORTAGES

1.1. Perhaps the most deadly negative consequence of climate change will be the dramatic increase in droughts across the planet.

This is because when the air's temperature increases, it becomes able to "hold" larger amounts of water (since warm water vapor has a higher pressure). Since there will be more water in the air, there will be less water on the ground to sustain crops.

1.2. The citizens of extremely poor nations are heavily dependent on agriculture, with more than 85% of the population surviving by growing their own food. Since these populations have almost no savings (they can barely feed themselves much less save for a rainy day) these citizens' lives are often at the mercy of droughts; if the rains fail to come, these people often die of starvation.

1.3. Severe droughts negatively affect extremely poor societies in three ways.

First, droughts negatively affect health by forcing families to go without food, depriving them of the nutrients needed to fight off disease; since the nutrient deprived, starving workers will not be as productive as healthy workers, productivity within the extremely poor nation is weakened, causing the economy to suffer (as explained in chapter three, this terrible health raises child mortality rates, which tends to cause overpopulation and further burden the economy).

1.4. Second, having widespread drought significantly increases a country's chances of exploding into civil war; when a large number of people are starving to death, they are much more likely to risk their lives as soldiers, and might be more sympathetic to radical leaders promising something better. If devastating drought were to engulf most of an extremely poor continent such as Africa, drought would combine with poverty to create an unprecedented number of civil wars.

1.5. Third, boost of agricultural production as a means of escaping extreme poverty; when a region can suddenly produce more valuable food than ever before, they have the money to enter the Cycle of Prosperity (investments in health, education and infrastructure create more wealth to fund further investment). But when a population is chronicallyheld back by droughts resulting in low food supplies then they are less likely to achieve that boost of wealth and will remain stuck in poverty.

2. FLOODS AND EXTREME WEATHERS2.1. Floods are associated with particular dangers to human populations . Climate change may increase the risk of river and coastal flooding . The health impacts of floods may be immediate like death and injuries caused by drowning and being swept against hard objects, or gradual like outbreak of communicable diseases such as those caused by ingestion of contaminated water (e.g., cholera, hepatitis A), or respiratory diseases resulting from overcrowding in shelters.

2.2. In developed countries, physical and disease risks from flooding are greatly reduced by a well-maintained flood control and sanitation infrastructure and public health measures, such as monitoring and surveillance activities to detect and control outbreaks of infectious disease. Poor countries lack this facility. Hence the poor will suffer the most.

3. CROP FAILURES AND FOOD INSECURITY

3.1. Climate change will worsen the living conditionsof farmers, fishers and forest-dependent people who are already vulnerable and food insecure. Hunger and malnutrition will increase. Rural communities, particularly those living in already fragile environments, face an immediate and ever-growing risk of increased crop failure, loss of livestock, and reduced availability of marine, aquaculture and forest products.

3.2. More frequent and more intense extreme weather events will have adverse impacts on food availability, accessibility, stability and utilization, as well as on livelihood assets andopportunities in both rural and urban areas. Poor people will be atrisk of food insecurity due to loss of assets and lack of adequate insurancecoverage. Rural people’s ability to cope with climate change impacts depends on the existing cultural and policy context, as well as on socio-economic factors like gender, household composition, age, and the distribution of household assets.

3.3. Climate change is having an impact on oceans, seas, lakes and rivers and on the animals and plants that are found and/or cultured in them. Climate change will affect the approximately 200 million people and their families worldwide whose livelihoods depend on fishing and aquaculture. Some fish resources will become less abundant while important species may move to other areas where they are less available to the fishers. Aquaculture practices may be threatened, among other factors, by increased extreme weather events, droughts, and the warming of waters. This will make it harder for many fishing communities to continue to make a living from fish or to provide fish for feeding their families.

4. REDUCED AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

4.1. Agriculture is strongly Influenced by weather and climate. While farmers are often flexible in dealing with weather and year-to-year variability, there is nevertheless a high degree of adaptation to the local climate in the form of established infrastructure, local farming practice and individual experience. Climate change can therefore be expected to impact on agriculture, potentially threatening established aspects of farming systems but also providing opportunities for improvements.

5. LOW LYING AREAS

5.1. Climate change is expected to cause serious degradation of the coastal environment and natural resources on which poor rural people depend. Higher rates of erosion and coastal land loss are expected in many Pacific Islands as a consequence of the projected increase in sea level.

5.2. For example, for Majuro atoll in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, it is estimated that for a 1m rise in sea level as much as 80% and 12.5%, respectively, of total land would be vulnerable. Pacific Islands are shown to be mainly vulnerable to coastal flooding and decreased extent of coastal vegetated wetlands. There is also a detectable influence on marine and terrestrial pathogens, such as coral diseases and oyster pathogens.

6. DESSERTIFICATION

6.1. Desertification is land degradation in drylands, resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. While climate change affects the whole world, the poorest suffer the most. According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), populations in drylands live under the worst economic conditions. Drylands have the lowest GDP per capita and the highest infant mortality rates. Soil degradation in drylands exacerbates the problem even more. The decline in the fertility of land reduces crop production and additional income sources.

6.2. The general rise in temperature will predictably raise the rate of evapo-transpiration leading to a drop in soil humidity and an increase in the number of droughts. The deterioration in the condition of topsoil, particularly in the drylands, is a consequence of temperature variations, rainfall and soil humidity that exacerbate the process of desertification.

7. BIODIVERISTY - How climate change affects biodiversity ?

7.1. Climate change will have a number of impacts on biodiversity, from ecosystem to species level.

7.2. The most obvious is the effect that flooding, sea level rise and changes in temperature will have on ecosystem boundaries. As a result of these shifts in boundary, some ecosystems will expand into new areas, while others will become smaller. Habitatswill change as rainfall and temperatures change, and some species will not be able to keep up, leading to a sharp increase in extinction rates.

7.3. The links between poverty, climate change and biodiversity

Poor people are disproportionately vulnerable to the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. And although they are responsible for emitting the lowest levels of greenhouse gases, they suffer most from the impacts of climate change.

8. SPREAD OF DECEASES8.1. Our current climate has a number of implications for the health of the poor. Different aspects of the climate (including average climate conditions, seasonality and climate extremes) affect health: e.g. vector diseases such as malaria are limited by temperature and humidity; outbreaks of cholera often show seasonality; and climate extremes can have a number of health impacts from flooding, heat waves and wind-storms.

8.2. Vector-borne infectious diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, have a significantimpact on health and poverty. Currently, approximately 40% of the world’s population isat risk from malaria, and this is projected to increase to 80% by 2080. More than half theworld’s population live in areas at risk of dengue fever.

TO CONCLUDE WITH A QUOTE OFBan Ki-MoonU.N. Secretary General

Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one

and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy

shortages, global health, food security and women's empowerment. Solutions to one

problem must be solutions for all.

This educational PowerPoint Presentation (editable) is prepared by GEM Team (courtesy:

internet). For other similar GEM PowerPoint Presentations on various environmental issues see next slide.

These PPTs may be downloaded from our website www.stfrancisxavierpanvel.in

The GEM PPTs can be creatively used for various groups like school/college students, NGOs, government officials, Church groups,

SCC groups, housing society members and so on.

Zero Garbage Solar Energy -(Darkness to

Light) Junk Food Twenty Tips To Save Nature

Plastic – a boon or bane? Green Passion Soft drink – A Health Hazard Waste to energy Rain Water Harvesting Eco-friendly Religions Happy Green Diwali Climate Change The future of Biodiversity

Genetically Modified Foods Waste Water Treatment Give thanks, Give Life (Body,

Organ, Tissue Donation) Organic Farming Waste to cooking gas Reduce, Reuse. Recycle Protect Mangroves Say NO to Bottled water Save Lakes and Ponds Forests

are green lungs Coal Mining and Ecology Sin of Food Waste Climate change and Poverty