Background
While least responsible for causing climate change, poor people bear the brunt of the impacts. As an international relief and development organization dedicated to finding lasting solutions to poverty and injustice, Oxfam America is campaigning to create equitable solutions to the crisis. We are asking that the US go beyond cutting greenhouse gas emissions by providing financial assistance so that the most vulnerable communities here and abroad can adapt.
Why is climate change a human issue? Because it affects our entire planet—natural resources, wildlife, and people. And it‘s the world‘s poorest people who are bearing the brunt of the crisis.
For communities throughout South Asia and Africa, a changing climate causes major disruptions to agriculture and food supplies, leading to widespread hunger and deepening poverty. Hurricanes, floods, and storms are increasing in severity and putting coastal communities in the US Gulf Coast and Central America at risk. As the crisis grows, conflicts in the Middle East will intensify because of the scarcity of resources, while mass migration and displacement could disrupt global stability and security.
For all of these reasons, climate change is about more than saving the planet—it is the ultimate poverty issue of the 21st century.
