Vidya Sethuraman
India Post News Service
Weather and climate disasters have caused over $1.8 trillion in damage costs in the U.S. since 1980. Fresh off the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference just celebrated in Glasgow, environmental leaders and experts examined what was achieved and what was not, including the charge that developed countries blocked reparations to pay for the devastating impact climate change has already had on developing countries at the EMS Briefing on Nov 19. As global migration swells with climate refugees, the lack of resources in these countries will only accelerate the pace of climate change rather than reversing it. The refugees generated under climate change will cause the expansion of global population migration and further accelerate the climate.
Water scarcity, decreasing crop productivity and rising sea levels could lead to millions of what have been described as “climate migrants”. The World Bank estimates that there may be over 200 million climate migrants by 2050. Climate change can cause storm destruction and food insecurity that overwhelm the ability of governments to deal with them.
Ramon Cruz Diaz, Sierra Club, President of the Board of Directors, he is the first Latino President of the environmental organization and emphasizes justice and equity on environmental issues. He attended the COP26 at Glasgow. We know that to solve the climate crisis we need to move entirely beyond fossil fuels. At this conference, some developing countries proposed to stop any financial subsidies that may cause forest destruction. Another focus of the debate among countries is whether to phase out or gradually reduce the use of coal and chemical fuels, said Diaz.
Diaz said that the United States has advocated controlling the global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees for many years, but the UN General Assembly did not reach an agreement on this goal, and some countries questioned this data.
Alex de Sherbinin, Associate Director for Science Applications and a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) Columbia Climate School and its Earth Institute, said that American scientists are committed to controlling the global 1.5 degree temperature rise plan because every degree of temperature rise will affect Sea level and biological systems have a huge impact. If the current temperature is four degrees higher, it will have a devastating impact on the world. Climate change has also accelerated population mobility. The population from areas with less precipitation will migrate to areas with abundant soil and water. Scientists predict that by 2050, 48 to 216 million people in various regions will be forced to emigrate due to climatic factors.
Dana Johnson, Senior Director of Strategy and Federal Policy at WE ACT for Environmental Justice | WE ACT por Justicia Ambiental, spoke on the need to focus on environmental
justice and combat environmental racism in communities of color. It’s a horrible truth that low-income communities are the most heavily impacted by disasters, and climate change is no different. The poor have the least resources to cope with climate change or the ability to recover from disasters. She believes that in recent years, some large companies have pretended to be concerned about environmental protection or the impact they have caused on the community, but they have not taken actual actions to improve.
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