How Climate Change Affects Indigenous Peoples
Written by: Benjamin Schuller
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Climate
change: often described as the defining struggle of our generation, yet often
is described as “controversial”. I’m not here to argue today about conspiracy
theories about if climate change is real, however, since the general consensus
of the scientific community is that climate change is about as real as the
shoes on your feet (1). Instead, I’d like to talk about the people who are
already suffering due to the effects of climate change, and who will likely
suffer the brunt of its effects.
Climate change has been shown to be
caused by CO2 and methane gas emissions, largely created by our western
standard of living. Prosperity has shown to be the most important factor for
the increased production of these greenhouse gasses, and it should be noteworthy
that most governments have encouraged this damage, in the name of increased
profit margins. These emissions are largely coming from China, Russia, the
E.U., and the United States. Some countries in sub-saharan africa have a
footprint of only .1 tonnes a year, which is 160 times lower than the United
States. In about two and a half days, the average American emits as much as one
sub-saharan african does in a year (2). Think about that for a minute. These
are the people who are most vulnerable, and they’re already being affected by
something that they aren’t really contributing to. The west, by and large,
continues to pass half measures of policies at best, because this issue has not
so obviously affected them yet.
For a more specific example, Chad is
a country in sub saharan africa that depends on farming for much of its
economy. Lake Chad, one of the major water sources in the region, has dried up
to 90% recently, making the lives of these destitute farmers that much more
difficult. This is causing significant struggle over water resources, as well
as causing mass migration to the cities to find employment during the dry
season, further disrupting the economy. 63% of the people in Chad are destitute
(3). There aren’t any realistic fixes in sight for these people, and it’s only
going to get worse. The last few years have consistently been the hottest years
ever recorded, and if the data is to be believed, this trend will likely
continue (4).
It’s clearer now than ever that
climate change is causing significant disruption on the global scale, yet few
serious solutions are being implemented, and famous activists are commonly
harassed, ranging from simple patronization to death threats (5). It’s
troubling, if arguably unsurprising, that the west is dumping a problem of this
size on vulnerable indigenous populations across the globe (as well as itself),
while refusing to do enough to fix it. This is perhaps the pinnacle of first
world, white, western privilege.
The end results of climate change
are hotly debated, but one thing most people agree on, is that temperatures
will raise at least several degrees celsius, which will decimate earth’s
ecology. There are countless effects of this that can’t begin to be mapped out
by scientific predictions, but it includes ocean acidification, the destruction
of ecosystems everywhere, crop shortages, the change of sea levels, and
permanent geographic changes (6)(7). Many articles I have found use language
such as “Some authors also suggested that food shortages are likely to affect
poorer parts of the world far more than richer ones. That could increase a flow
of immigration that is already redefining politics in North America, Europe and
other parts of the world,” (7) and similar, without taking into account that
this outrage has already been happening for a long time, the west just likes to
take a blind eye to the damages it wrought so it doesn’t feel bad.
I want to make it clear that climate
change is an issue that affects us all, however, it was largely created by the
west, and will cannibalize the planet’s surface alongside the west. Something
must be done about this, and the sooner the better. Most people I talk to in my
personal life dismiss climate change as something that will happen by the time
we’re in the retirement home, but it’s destroying people’s lives right now. If
we continue being apathetic, eventually climate change will escalate to a
degree where it kills millions of people and displaces billions. I think it’s
pretty sad, for the record, that I have to conceptualize things on a global
scale, rather than focus on the struggles of the poor and disadvantaged, to get
people interested in climate change, but from my own observances, this appears
to be the case. That said, if I have to direct my arguments to appear to
everyone, then that’s what I’ll do, because climate change is too serious of an
issue to conceptualize and let divide us. This isn’t an us vs them, and it
shouldn’t be a case of “That’s not my problem!” (Even though, by all cases, us
Americans are major contributors), rather, it’s an issue of us taking
responsibility for the damage we wrought and doing something about it, because
it’s destroying people’s lives all over the globe and it’s only going to get
worse.
Sources
(1).
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
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