Truth and the Devil

An article in today’s New York Times highlights the potential damages of global climate change for third world countries. Despite the fact that the industrialized nations of the US and Europe are the producers of most of the world’s greenhouse gases, it is the third world countries that might be the least equipped to deal with the problem.

Two-thirds of the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that can persist in the air for centuries, has come in nearly equal proportions from the United States and Western European countries. Those and other wealthy nations are investing in windmill-powered plants that turn seawater to drinking water, in flood barriers and floatable homes, and in grains and soybeans genetically altered to flourish even in a drought.

In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the global emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel burning since 1900, yet its 840 million people face some of the biggest risks from drought and disrupted water supplies, according to new scientific assessments. As the oceans swell with water from melting ice sheets, it is the crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt, along with small island nations, that are most at risk.

When I think about it, this is the problem with global warming that tends to evoke the strongest emotions out of me. It would be one thing if those who caused the greatest amount of planetary warming were the ones who had to carry the burden of its effects, but the world isn’t fair like that. Western nations like the U.S. have the resources available to them to help battle the effects of global warming. Poorer countries do not.

Scientists say it has become increasingly clear that worldwide precipitation is shifting away from the equator and toward the poles. That will nourish crops in warming regions like Canada and Siberia while parching countries — like Malawi in sub-Saharan Africa — which are already prone to drought.

While rich countries are hardly immune from drought and flooding, their wealth will largely insulate them from harm, at least for the next generation or two, many experts say.

Cities in Texas, California and Australia are already building or planning desalination plants, for example. And federal studies have shown that desalination can work far from the sea, purifying water from brackish aquifers deep in the ground in places like New Mexico.

That’s not to say that industrialized countries won’t be affected as well. There’s a common idea in America, that whatever comes, some great technological innovation will come along and save the day. It can perhaps be considered a noble view of the country, but it is not often that something with such long term causes and affects comes along.

Many other experts insist this is not an either-or situation. They say that cutting the vulnerability of poor regions needs much more attention, but add that unless emissions are curbed, there will be centuries of warming and rising seas that will threaten ecosystems, water supplies, and resources from the poles to the equator, harming rich and poor.

Global warming is the rare situation that requires far-sighted efforts to confront the problem. By the time obvious, disastrous consequences are occurring, it will be far too late to solve this problem. Unfortunately, it will be those in the poorest countries who will be the first victims, and they are the ones who can do the least to prevent it.