Even though tomorrow, October 15th, is Blog Action Day, an annual event when bloggers write about the same issue on the same day, today is the best day for me to put up my post, so here it goes! I figure it's already October 15th in some parts of the world, so it's ok (:This year's Blog Action Day issue is climate change. Personally, I'm interested in the connection between climate change and poverty.
According to the Carbonfund.org post, Report Shows Poverty Linked to Climate Change:
"A study, published in an August issue of Environmental Research Letters, has shown that climate change will have a disproportionate impact on the world’s poor, pushing them further into poverty. The study examined the potential economic impact of adverse climate events, such as heat waves, drought and heavy rains on households in developing countries."The humanitarian organization, CARE, has a whole Climate Change Information Center microsite at www.careclimatechange.org. According to the site, the people CARE works with are telling them that climate change is already causing:
- More people to suffer from hunger;
- More people to live without access to adequate water;
- An increase in health threats;
- A decline in the productivity of natural resource based livelihoods; and
- An increase in the frequency, scale and intensity of conflicts over natural resources.
Oxfam America wants supporters to send an email to President Obama asking him to, "make the US a leader [during the United Nations Climate Change Conference] in crafting an equitable global treaty that provides substantial financing for poor and vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change." Oxfam UK is asking its supporters to send similar emails to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
I have to tell you that reading about this stuff makes me feel a bit discouraged, but I was heartened to find the post, The next urban crisis: poverty and climate change on the World Bank's Development in a Changing Climate blog, that mentions the launch of the Rockefeller Foundation's Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network.
The Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network, "aims to catalyze attention, funding, and action on building climate change resilience for poor and vulnerable people by creating robust models and methodologies for assessing and addressing risk through active engagement and analysis of various cities."
What other projects and innovations have you heard about that are being developed to help poor people who will be, and are affected by climate change?
You can still sign up to participate in Blog Action Day on blogactionday.org, and follow their latest news on the Blog Action Day blog.
Cross-posted from BlogHer.com.
Blog Action Day
climate change
poverty
