Do you agree that war, poverty, racism, and the climate crisis, and their remedies, are interconnected?
Yes, I absolutely think that war, poverty, racism, and the climate crisis are interconnected, particularly when it comes to their remedies. By now, most people probably think of war, poverty, and racism as at least somewhat related. For instance, war often causes/worsens or is caused by instability in a region, much of the time including poverty. Additionally, racism has historically and presently economically disenfranchised various groups of people, and caused countless acts of violence. I could go on, as there are many connections that can be drawn between war, poverty, and racism.
Because of these connections, solving one of these issues can help solve the others. For example, improving healthcare, education, and access to basic needs such as food, shelter, and water, can help to stabilize and empower an impoverished community, which then helps prevent corrupt or violent leadership from taking over—thus decreasing the likelihood of war. (By the way, if anyone is interested in remote volunteering opportunities using US politics to address global poverty, check out The Borgen Project).
Now, I think that the connection between the climate crisis and war, poverty, and racism, isn't quite as obvious right away. I think this is because we haven't quite reached that point where our lives are directly affected by climate change—yet. The truth is, we won't for quite some time. The people who will suffer from the bulk of climate change consequences first are those who are already suffering now. That's where the connection is. For example, should climate change cause a global famine, impoverished regions will be the first to run out of food. The US and other wealthy nations will likely have the resources to hang on to what we need, at least for a longer period of time. During that period of time, widespread hunger would likely increase acts of violence and sparring between countries for resources. Even within our own country, those who are at lower socioeconomic levels would be hit long before the wealthiest ever would. Because racism has caused a lot of economic disadvantages for communities of color, as we saw with COVID, these communities would likely feel the effects of a global famine much worse and first.
Clearly, these issues are interconnected. While war, poverty, racism, and climate change, deserve to be examined individually and given enough attention on their own, I think it is unfortunate that politicians treat them as if they aren't related to one another. The good news is that because the problems feed into each other, so will the solutions. Keeping this perspective, I think, is a good way to be more efficient in how we approach these issues.
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While I do believe you are correct in that war, poverty, and racism are interconnected I don't quite see the connections to climate change like you do. In your example you state that a food shortage would cause more war and poverty, but I disagree in that I think it might cause a mass migration of people from one region to another instead. As for racism I do think your example would increase it exponentially.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think that mass migration could easily happen in this scenario, I don't think it should be ruled out that global food shortages would lead to violence and worsened economic disparities. I mean, mass migration alone could easily spark violence if a country views a group of immigrants as a threat to their already dwindling food resources. I think this attitude is likely, considering how people behaved earlier this year during the whole toilet paper debacle—imagine if we had to worry about food.
DeleteI totally agree with you, Heather. I actually believe that we can already see how poverty and climate crisis are connected. People living in poorer countries are also the ones that are already being impacted by climate change even thought they are contributing the least to the crisis. They do not have the resources to fight back or to protect themselves against the climatic changes.
ReplyDeleteI think in today's world everything is interconnected which makes it so much harder to examine single topics because everything has an impact on something else. I guess it can be seen as a downside and upside, depending on the case.
I agree, Carolin, some regions are already getting hit by the effects of climate change, and it is very concerning! The very least we could do as the main perpetrators of the crisis is help these communities rebuild after these disasters, but we aren't doing nearly enough in that front either.
DeleteI completely agree that poverty, war, racism, and the climate crisis all interconnects. Responding to Tyler’s comment, the food shortages, it could certainly cause immigration, racism, war and the like. Environmental damage with farming was seen majorly with the dust bowl. We almost turned a large area of the US into basically a desert trying to produce more food. I can definitely see the same events unfolding in other countries.
ReplyDeleteI agree that what we tend to classify as separate issues, are often way more connected than we think. Climate factors like drought and famine can often lead to violence or amplify racial tensions. I think mass migration due to drought and rising sea levels will increasingly be a source of violence in the coming years. That just makes fixing the climate even more of a pressing issue.
ReplyDelete"An Inconvenient Truth" (among other sources) has already documented specific ways in which climate change has exacerbated local conflicts, famine, etc., throughout the developing world. This is not merely speculative or hypothetical. It's the world we've created.
ReplyDelete