Climate Change and North South Reparations

Originally written and posted for the Civicus World Assembly Blog 



One fifth of Pakistan is underwater, millions of people are homeless. . . the scale is so large that it is nearly impossible for me to fathom. (I feel a shift in the force, Luke) It is a large climate crisis.

In the event that you have any doubt that the Pakistan Floods (or Russian fires) are related to climate change see here (really, the jet stream has stalled!?) and here and here.

According to Dr. Jeff Masters,

The year 2010 now has the most national extreme heat records for a single year--eighteen. These nations comprise 19% of the total land area of Earth. This is the largest area of Earth's surface to experience all-time record high temperatures in any single year in the historical record. Looking back at the past decade, which was the hottest decade in the historical record, seventy-five counties set extreme hottest temperature records (33% of all countries.) For comparison, fifteen countries set extreme coldest temperature records over the past ten years (6% of all countries).

Huffington Post Slide show - 9 countries with record heat this year.



On the last morning of the 2010 Civicus World Assembly, Kumi Naidoo put it all in perspective for me. I cannot quote him exactly, but the important concept is that "aid" is not really aid - that's a misnomer. It should not be called aid, it is payment of a debt to the south from the north. We, in the north, have destroyed/warmed the climate, but the south pays the price, or at least they are going to pay it first,. They have, for the most part, the least economic resilience and ability, to save people from climate change - e.g floods and other environmental disasters, causing crop failure and wiping out homes. Over 300,000 people (before Pakistan) were already called "climate refugees". The north (it is very hard to say "we" when I have been fighting environmental and social justice issues for 35 years, but what else can I say?) warmed the earth (and continues to do so) by literally (and liberally) spewing green house gases, but we also bury our toxic waste in the south, and generally make garbage that others are expected to clean up, or put up with. At our rate of consumption in the north, we would need 5 planets to bring everyone to this northern standard of living. So we ALL need to change - but individual action, though laudable, is not enough.

Now, it is time to pay, to make reparations - as the south is going to pay the price first (we will all suffer eventually as record temperatures in Russia and Finland this summer demonstrate) and eventually there is little anyone can do. . .

So we all need to take individual actions to stop creating GHG's and decrease our own carbon footprints - get out of our cars, be careful about what we consume - want less. . . but, in addition, we have to come together to take collective action, to make sure that we make corporations and governments work together to save the planet, and we have to act quickly.

Things are clearly heating up. In the north, we have a debt to pay. It is not just climate of course, we owe a debt that we should/must repay - in Haiti for instance, among other countries of the Global South. Exploitation and outright theft of people, resources and labour have been rampant. The injustice is now on such a massive scale that it is hard for ordinary people to see. But it is important that the education and the action begin.