Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change Guest Post

From CARE

Climate change is not only about melting ice caps and polar bears. Climate change is about people.

Swinging weather patterns are creating disasters on a scale that human civilization has never before witnessed. For the world’s poorest people – the ones least equipped to deal with its effects – climate change is devastating their crops, livelihoods and communities.

"Climate change is worsening the plight of those hundreds of millions of men, women and children who already live in extreme poverty – and it threatens to push hundreds of millions more people into similar destitution," says CARE International’s Secretary General Robert Glasser. "A concerted international response to this unprecedented challenge is required if we are to avoid catastrophic human suffering."

CARE is working toward a world where poor people can create opportunity out of crises like climate change. But the current reality is that climate change makes poor people even more vulnerable.

For instance, agricultural production will likely decline in the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Less reliable rainfall will likely affect planting seasons, crop growth and livestock health – and lead to increased malnutrition. In other parts of the developing world, flooding will likely further diminish the quality of already-marginal soil and could cause outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera and dysentery.
Climate change also is hurling many poor families into “Catch-22” situations. For example, they may select crops that are less sensitive to rainfall variation, but also less profitable. As incomes decline and people are not able to eke out a living, children are forced to leave school, assets are sold off to afford essentials, malnutrition rates increase and large-scale migration ensues. The end result? Deepening poverty for tens of millions of people around the world.

What Must Be Done?

At the international level, negotiations to develop a new treaty to guide global efforts to address climate change will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark in just a couple weeks. The United States must help lead those efforts, and forge a strong agreement that caps emissions, stops global warming and responds to the effects already in motion. We must do this for the sake of all of humanity.

What can I do to help?

First, you can make a tax-deductible donation to CARE to help poor families access the tools and education they need to adapt to the effects of climate change, make efficient use of their existing resources and overcome poverty for good.

Second, if you live in the Unites States, you can write your senators and urge them to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, a critical step toward U.S. leadership in tackling climate change. U.S. leadership is critical to making the Copenhagen negotiations a success.

Third, you can join the CARE mailing list to be kept up to date on CARE’s activities and other ways you can take action in the days counting down to Copenhagen.

To donate, take action and join our e-mail list, please visit www.care.org/climate

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

20 odd years ago I can remember my Mum worrying about the hole in the Ozone Layer. It was a big thing, and after much huffing and puffing the world did something about it. Slowing, but surely, the "hole" is shrinking (although let's not call it problem solved but prospects look a lot better now thanks to global action).

Now we face another environmental problem: Climate Change. And the world just doesn't seem to care. The worst part of it is the controversy over whether it is man made or not. Does it really matter? I personally believe the extent of climate change is going to be directly affected by our actions at the least, but even if you think it's a natural phenomenon then it's still a problem we must solve. We build sea walls to defend our homes from the violent sea. We build roofs to cover ourselves from the affects of the weather. And if the weather or the sea destroys that which we have built we don't just shrug our shoulders and say "Oh jeez, guess there's nothing we can do, it's nature after all." No. We build things bigger, stronger and more intelligently than before and hope that works out better. It might not be the most sensible thing, but it's what us humans do and it's what makes us the species we are.

Climate change is real. It's happening. And if we don't do something to suppress it as much as possible our world, our homes and even our civilisation may not survive. We must change how we live voluntarily before the Earth makes changes for us.

We are not looking here at an end of the world scenario. We may not be looking at the end of the human race scenario. What we are looking at though is the destruction of our children's quality of life, of vast ecosystems filled with untold numbers of creatures and of centuries of progress towards a better world. Do you think a world with less land area to go around, water shortages, and "weird" weather is one which will be conducive to peace and prosperity? I don't.

We must make every effort to change our ways to beat climate change and many other environmental problems (climate change, to me, is but one part of the overall issue of the state we are leaving this planet in for future generations). We must also double our efforts in innovation, science and discovery, for we may be able to have our cake and eat it too if we can find a way to solve climate change through invention. It's what we humans are good at.

Need evidence? Check out this story from the BBC.

And for a more general idea of what we are doing to the world, read The World Without Us (Amazon US), which really brings home to you the need for us to change our ways.

This blogger works for nothing but the joy of writing but always appreciates things bought from his wishlist