Map Reveals Stark Divide in Who Caused Climate Change and Who's Being Hit

[polly7]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/10/28-0

Published on Friday, October 28, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

Map Reveals Stark Divide in Who Caused Climate Change and Who's Being Hit

by Damian Carrington


When the world's nations convene in Durban in November in the latest attempt to inch towards a global deal to tackle climate change, one fundamental principle will, as ever, underlie the negotiations.

Is is the contention that while rich, industrialised nations caused climate change through past carbon emissions, it is the developing world that is bearing the brunt. It follows from that, developing nations say, that the rich nations must therefore pay to enable the developing nations to both develop cleanly and adapt to the impacts of global warming.

The point is starkly illustrated in a new map of climate vulnerability (above): the rich global north has low vulnerability, the poor global south has high vulnerability. The map is produced by risk analysts Maplecroft by combining measures of the risk of climate change impacts, such as storms, floods, and droughts, with the social and financial ability of both communities and governments to cope. The top three most vulnerable nations reflect all these factors: Haiti, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe.

[jwirr]

1. This is a very good map but we need a second map - one that shows

contributors to the problem. There is a difference between being vulnerable and contributing. I had not realized that the effects were so north-south oriented. Why is this so evident? You would think that it would be equally distributed around the world.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

2. It's not quite north-south

It's that equatorial areas are more affected. Australia, for example, has about the same risk as North America. Without Antartica in the picture it's tough to remember that the equator goes through the middle of Africa and the northern part of South America.

[jwirr]

3. Thank you.