Background
More than 200 years since the Industrial Revolution, our growing reliance on fossil fuels has changed the climate. The same fuels that power our businesses, fire up our cars, and keep us warm at night have produced “greenhouse gases,” which are slowly warming our planet. The rising temperature is creating more extreme weather patterns, melting glaciers, and causing floods and droughts. In some regions, climate change is aggravating existing problems and increasing the threat of conflict. Worse yet, it’s the world’s poorest people—those least responsible for generating greenhouse gases—who are experiencing the most devastating effects. Least prepared to respond to the unavoidable changes, they also lack the political power, money, and technology necessary to survive.
That’s where large, industrialized countries like the US come in. As one of the world’s biggest producers of greenhouse gas emissions, the US must take responsibility for its actions by dramatically reducing emissions and providing financial assistance to help the most vulnerable countries adapt.
The Facts: Climate change
...requires urgent action.
- According to the World Health Organization, climate change may already contribute to more than 150,000 deaths a year.
- Accelerated global warming has been observed, and the impacts of this warming are proceeding much faster than predicted in the 1990s.
...hurts poor people first and worst.
- Nearly two billion people in developing countries were affected by climate-related disasters in the 1990s. That rate may double in this decade. People in developing coun¬tries are more than 20 times as likely to be affected by such disasters as those in the developed world.
- As of August 2007, some 248 million people had been affected by flooding in 11 Asian countries last year. Extreme floods are common in South Asia, but climate change models predict even heavier monsoon rainfall—and intense rain in unlikely places.
- Between July 2007 and October 2007, Africa’s worst floods in three decades hit 23 countries from Senegal to Somalia. Nearly two million people were affected. Africa’s climates are highly variable, but more climatic extremes—especially “extremely wet events”—are in line with climate change predictions.
- By 2020, up to 250 million people across Africa could face more severe water shortages. In some countries, yields from rain-fed crops could be halved during the same period.
...threatens global security.
- Conflicts and migration are likely to intensify as a result of increased competition for scarce natural resources.
- According to a report by a panel of retired US generals and admirals, climate change acts as a “threat multiplier for instability” in some of the most volatile regions of the world.
- Rising sea levels in Central America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia are wiping out low-lying coastal lands. This may lead to massive migrations, which could easily trigger major security concerns and aggravate regional tensions.
...requires real resources.
- According to a recent report published by the UN Development Program, adaptation needs in developing countries are likely to cost up to $86 billion each year.
- If early action is taken, the cost of climate change will likely be several orders of magnitude below the cost of inaction. If global greenhouse gas emissions are not cut fast enough, steeper reductions will be required down the line.
...demands innovative solutions.
- In South Africa, farmers are already planting faster-maturing crops to cope with unpredictable rainfall.
- In Bangladesh, villagers are creating floating vegetable gardens to protect their livelihoods from ruin by floods.
- In Vietnam, communities are planting dense mangroves along the coast to diffuse the waves caused by tropical storms.