Change is Coming

I have written previously about the less positive effects of the developing world’s adoption of all the practices of developed countries. And in issues of Climate Change, the developing world is faced with the same problems as the rest of the world, but public efforts are less directed towards it.

I read an article that began with this:

In developing countries, where survival is often a daily struggle, people cannot afford to wait for their government to bail them out. Many are living in the grip of climate change, coping with frequent droughts, heavy flooding, intense cyclones and other extreme weather events, and have found ways to adapt.

And an example of the ways to adapt is this: “In Bangladesh, women farmers faced with frequent floods are building ‘floating gardens’ — hyacinth rafts on which to grow vegetables in flood-prone areas.”

The citizens are adapting to these changes, but many countries have bigger and more urgent problems to face than the climate changes that their greenhouse emissions are causing. This creates an unfortunate cycle: increased greenhouse emissions lead to increased temperatures which lead to longer droughts which can then cause famine and starvation. But it is very hard to start conversations to increase the costs of production, in an already struggling country. It is a simple fact: cheaper production costs usually involve cheaper and more polluting fuels.

But there is another complication. In 1997, the Kyoto protocol was adopted. The agreement recognized that “developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, and places a heavier burden on them under the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities.’” So one would expect that these developed countries are doing their best to keep the terms of the protocol to reduce their emissions. But that is not the case. The United States actually objected to the protocol because it excluded China and India from making the mandatory commitments to cut. The Kyoto agreement ends in 2012, and the deadlock remains. In fact: “The big developing countries, such as China, India, South Africa and Brazil, have said they are willing to take on mandatory 50 percent cuts in emissions by 2050, if the rich countries agree at least to take on 25 to 40 percent cuts in emissions below 1990 levels by 2020.”

I do not know about you, but 2050 seems like a pretty long time from now. And from these conflicts between the so called ‘developed’ countries, it is hard to see how poorer countries could get any encouragement to improve their industrial practices. While there are funds in place to assist developing countries, the estimates are that the fund will “raise up to $300 million a year by 2020…[but] Ethiopia’s immediate climate adaptation needs alone will amount to $800 million”. These numbers leave very little to be desired, and very little to hope for.

The first step is for the highest producers of emissions (the developed countries whose practices are so completely copied) to recognize that fact and try to reduce it officially with stringent laws. From then, there can be actual hope of the same laws and practices actually spreading.

-Onome U. Chicago IL, International Health Team, College Sophomore.

References:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201012100628.html