To give a couple facts to preface things: climate change is not afar-fetched and slow-coming notion that scientists have come up with.This is a current issue and it is a trend that has been ongoing sincethe 1800s. It has been studied by hundreds of scientists since the mid1960's and unfortunately, it is just now that it is gaininginternational attention. This is not because it hasn't been alegitimate issue until now. This is because we – as global citizens,developed and developing nations – have arrived at a point wherecurrent rates of fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissionshave driven the earth are beyond the point where we can reverse theeffects of climate change. Major droughts, violent floods, hurricanesand tsunamis, increasing food prices, failed crops, dying species anddwindling freshwater supplies and natural resources are the result.Which is unforgivable, to put it mildly. So where to go from here? Wecan only prevent future acceleration in the rate and severity ofclimate change; this is what we all need to fight for, because it isthe best option we have left and it is the only way to defend ourright to develop steadily and sustainably. It is also ourresponsibility, here in Mauritania and in developing nations to raiseour voices and ourselves heard in order to force the hand of theworld's polluters – such as the North America, Western Europe, andChina - to change drastically and to change now.And still many ask: "Why?"
For the sake of climate justice, that's why. We are witnessing one ofhuman history's largest injustices as this drama unwinds and thepeople of the developing world suffer the excesses of developednations. Consider the facts: Each year, the North America, WesternEurope, and now China emit over 60% of the world's carbon emissionseven though they house a minority of the world's population. These arealso three of the largest and most powerful economies in the world,confirming the global trend that countries with higher GDPs emit moreclimate-change-causing greenhouse gases. The injustice inherent inthese facts is that it is and will continue to be the poorestcountries of the world, who house the vast majority of the world'spopulation, will be most impacted by the effects of climate change andpollution. In these regions, people live overwhelmingly in thesouthern hemisphere (calculated by the IPCC to be more quickly andmore severely affected by global warming and climate change than theNorth), millions live close to their environments (often inagriculture-based economies), and poverty plus a lack ofinfrastructure creates a risk of environmental refugees as crops fail,drought spreads, and water availability decreases while floods becomemore violent and more common, and food becomes increasingly scarce.We, in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, will be the firstcasualties of the multiple disasters that climate change will bring.
It should anger us that the importance of climate change as an issueof global justice is regularly overlooked. Forgive me if this is anunreasonable assumption, but I believe this should incite in any andeveryone who thinks about it a permanent sense of outrage, fear andurgency in terms of how this is being dealt with. So what is the"climate justice" issue, again? The simple idea that Western nationshave primarily caused this problem, and that disproportionately poorernations (in Africa, Latin & South America and Southern Asia) willsuffer most acutely from it. Just ask yourself: who is affected moreby climate change: a family in California or a family here Mauritaniawho survives off of livestock and other limited assets that they sellin return for money that pays for water that does not run from the tapbecause it is too scarce and for food at an unaffordable price due toglobal rise in cereal prices incited by the West's increasing energydependence on a dwindling supply of oil? Think for a minute. It's notthat hard to figure out.
The U.S. holds 5% of the world's population but produces 25% of theworld's greenhouse gas emissions. Effectively, the poorest nations ofthe world are suffering from the excessive consumption of suchnations. This is what I am referring to when I say that the worldneeds climate justice, because every second, minute, and day ofinaction or ineffective action on part of the US, Canada, Europe andChina is another moment of climate injustice.This is all the morereason for us to become educated and to raise our collective voices toincrease awareness and do whatever is necessary to instill in thedeveloped nations of the word (the largest contributors to climatechange) a sense of responsibility for the damage that is being causedand that will continue if nothing is done.
We must not be passive; we must be powerful in our message so as toembed in the conscience of these nations that we as a population findthis state of affairs both unacceptable and unjust. The globaldiscourse must shift from one of a discussion of climate change justas a natural phenomenon, just as an economic flashpoint for richnations, and just as an ecological obligation to a discourse of globalresponsibility to the populations that will bear the brunt of theimpact of climate change. Climate change as it stands, especially forus in Africa and the developing world, is much, much more than what weare hearing about now.
It is our livelihoods.It is the water we drink.It is the air we breathe.It is the crops we farm.It is our children and future generations.It is our lakes, our rivers, our food, and our future.
In order to combat the currently irresponsible and passive attitudesof others, we in the developing world share the responsibility toempower ourselves and join the debate by raising the alarm and drawingclear, persuasive connections between our everyday lives and theglobal and scientific reality that is climate change. We must let theworld know the human impact of climate change now and in the future,because we are the human impact, we have the experience, and we have astory that must be shared.
Most importantly for us, both here in Mauritania and elsewhere inAfrica, the human and natural impact of climate change will be a majorobstacle to local and national development. It is in our most basicinterests to read and learn about this issue and to act locally andpolitically to fight for our right to continue on the road ofsustainable and socially responsible development in the hopes ofincreasing the quality of life and implementing positive change.Development and progress is a fundamental right that risks beingtrampled if populations at home and abroad do not recognize the linksbetween climate change, global environmental policy, and the right todevelopment. Climate change, as a global event, embodies virtuallyevery development indicator that governments and individuals alikeconsider important: the availability of food and water, susceptibilityto conflict, human health and widespread sickness, refugee andinternally displaced populations (IDPs), rural-urban migration,poverty, the health of ecosystems that we relentlessly rely on tosurvive, agricultural yield, the costs of transportation, food andhousing, national security, the global economy, the availability ofnatural resources(which are simultaneously being depleted by our useand endangered by climate change), birth rates, death rates, standardsof living, household incomes, energy needs and supplies - an endlesslist. I will stop here for the sake of maintaining your attentionbecause it is crucial that you continue reading.
The bottom line is this: if you believe that we must fight for theright to improve our countries through development, then you must bewilling to fight for our voices to be heard in the name of climatejustice.
This is a moral issue as well as an economic and political one and itis consistently shoved aside in favor of childish finger-pointing(US-China), party politics and global power plays, industry influence,and the customary "have our cake and eat it too" attitude of majorplayers, namely the United States. The citizens of these pollutingcountries are as responsible for the policies of their country as aretheir politicians because it is in their hands to control consumptionand support alternative fuel and power choices that will benefit notonly them, but the rest of the world's population as well.
We all need to develop a stronger sense of what climate change is andhow it is an issue that endangers everyone, everywhere, as well asbeing an issue that highlights how interconnected our world is. Ourdevelopment efforts are contingent on the ability of nations to seizethe idea of global and environmental responsibility and act upon it,immediately. We need to think about the global effects of our actionson an everyday basis and we need to re-think where we would like tosee ourselves, our world, and our respective countries 10, 20, or 50years from now. The crisis of the global environment is something thatis going to fundamentally change life on a global and personal levelin the years to come, and the burden of dealing with this falls on ourgeneration. You don't need to be an environmental activist, ascientist, or a university student for this to concern you. It willconcern you regardless.
There are too many people who do not notice the problem and thereforedo nothing about it. We need to educate them.There are too many people who know about this problem and refuse to doanything about it. We need to push them to do so.There are too many people who are just sitting on the fence. We needto get them on our side.There are too few people who are truly committed to seeing the fullscope of this issue and solving the problem.Let's get outraged at where things stand, let's get motivated to thinkabout it and do something about it. Let's get involved and geteducated.
Let us confront this problem forcefully and responsibly – it is one ofthe biggest struggles that our generation will face as we progress onthe path of peaceful and sustainable development.
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