inequality

Deforestation-Free Pledges | Earth Wise

December 12, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land. Forests are cut down to make space for animal grazing, agriculture, and to obtain wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction. Deforestation has greatly altered landscapes around the world and continues to do so today.

Deforestation is the second largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, trailing only fossil fuel use. Deforestation can lead to all sorts of problems, including biodiversity loss, soil erosion, desertification, and flooding. Deforestation also threatens peoples’ livelihoods and increases inequality and conflict.

As a result, many companies around the world have made pledges to remove deforestation from their supply chains. In fact, more than 94 companies had adopted zero-deforestation commitments by 2021. But while these companies are talking the talk, they don’t seem to be walking the walk.

According to a new study recently published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, companies’ deforestation-free supply chain pledges have barely impacted forest clearance in the Amazon.

The research team from the University of Cambridge, Boston University, ETH Zurich, and New York University found corporate pledges to not purchase soybeans grown on land deforested after 2006 have only reduced tree clearance in the Brazilian Amazon by 1.6% between 2006 and 2015. The researchers found that if these pledges had been implemented, the current levels of deforestation in Brazil could be reduced by approximately 40%.

According to the research team, the findings of the study indicate that private sector efforts are not enough to stop deforestation. Political leadership will also be vital to forest conservation efforts.

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Companies’ ‘deforestation-free’ supply chain pledges have barely impacted forest clearance in the Amazon, researchers say

Photo, posted November 18, 2020, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Cost Of Heat Waves | Earth Wise

December 7, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Heat waves are defined as periods of abnormally hot weather generally lasting more than two days. To be considered a heat wave, the recorded temperatures must be substantially above the historical averages for a given area. According to climate scientists, anthropogenic climate change is likely causing heat waves to increase in both frequency and intensity.

According to a new study by researchers from Dartmouth University, climate change-driven severe heat waves have cost the world economy trillions of dollars since the early 1990s.

In the study, which was recently published in the journal Science Advances, researchers combined in-depth economic data for regions worldwide with the average temperature for the hottest five-day period —a commonly used measurement of heat intensity—for each region in each year. The research team found that between 1992 and 2013, heat waves statistically coincided with variations in economic growth and that an estimated $16 trillion was lost to the effects of high temperatures on human health, productivity and agricultural output.

The results of the study underscore issues of climate justice and inequality. According to researchers, the economic costs of extreme heat have been and will be disproportionately borne by the world’s poorest nations. While economic losses due to extreme heat events averaged 1.5% of GDP per capita for the world’s wealthiest regions, the researchers found that low-income regions suffered a loss of 6.7% of GDP per capita. Most of these low-income nations have contributed the least to climate change.

According to the research team, immediate action is needed now to protect vulnerable people during the hottest days of the year.

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Heat Waves Have Cost World Economy Trillions of Dollars

Photo, posted July 23, 2021, courtesy of Martin Fisch (marfis75) via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Carbon Inequality | Earth Wise

November 4, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Everyone contributes to climate change through the generation of greenhouse gas emissions, but individual contributions vary greatly. A study at the Paris School of Economics has determined that just 1 percent of the population is responsible for nearly a quarter of global carbon emissions growth since 1990.

The study estimated emissions from individuals’ consumption and their financial investments, and also from government spending in their country. Individuals are responsible for carbon emissions as a result of their own activities, but they also bear their share of responsibility for the emissions of the firms that they own or invest in.

In 2019, people living in sub-Saharan Africa produced an average of 1.8 tons of CO₂ equivalent per capita. In North America, the average per capita was more than 10 times higher. Meanwhile, the top 10% of North America’s emitters produced more than 75 tons each.

From 1990 to 2019, the bottom 50% of emitters was responsible for just 16% of emissions growth, while the top 1% was responsible for 23%. The top 0.1% saw emissions growth of 80%.

The inequality between rich and poor is driven more by inequality within countries than by inequality between countries. This is particularly true for wealthy countries. For example, over the study period, the top 1% saw their emissions grow by 26% while emissions actually declined 5-15% among low and middle earners even in wealthy nations.

Economic inequality drives a lot of the dynamics taking place within many countries around the world, and this even applies to pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

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Global carbon inequality over 1990–2019

Photo, posted December 11, 2017, courtesy of Bernal Saborio via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Poverty And Climate Change

March 15, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to the World Health Organization, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 extra deaths per year between 2030 and 2050. But climate change does not affect everyone the same. In fact, the poorest people on the planet, who are often the least to blame for climate change, typically bear the worst of the impact.

Wealthier people and countries have more resources to shield themselves from the impacts of climate change. For example, higher incomes allow people to purchase air conditioning as temperatures rise, food as food prices soar, and homes in safer places. Wealthy nations can also compensate citizens when climate change harms livelihoods.

According to new research, people with lower incomes are exposed to heat waves for longer periods of time compared to those with higher incomes due to a combination of factors including location and access to heat adaptations like air conditioning. This inequality is expected to increase as temperatures rise.

The study, which was published in the AGU journal Earth’s Future, found that lower income populations face a 40% higher exposure to heat waves than people with higher incomes. By the end of the century, the poorest 25% of the global population will be exposed to heat waves at a rate equivalent to the rest of the population combined.

On the other hand, the highest-income quarter of the population will experience comparatively little change in exposure to heat waves as their ability to keep up with climate change is generally greater.

The research team hopes its findings will prompt innovations into affordable cooling solutions for the world’s most vulnerable population.

Climate change and poverty are, and will remain, inextricably linked.

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Poorest people bear growing burden of heat waves as temperatures rise

Photo, posted October 27, 2019, courtesy of Jack via Flickr.

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Climate Change And Economic Inequality

June 3, 2019 By EarthWise 1 Comment

A new study by Stanford University looked at the effects of climate change on global economic inequality. The study found that the gap between the economic output of the world’s richest and poorest countries is larger today than it would have been without global warming.

The warming climate has enriched cooler countries like Norway and Sweden while dragging down economic growth in warm countries such as India and Nigeria. The results of the study showed that most of the poorest countries on Earth are considerably poorer than they would have been in the absence of rising temperatures. At the same time, the majority of rich countries are richer than they would have otherwise been.

Detailed analysis of 50 years of annual temperature and GDP measurements for 165 countries demonstrated that growth during warmer than average years has accelerated in cool nations and slowed in warm nations. Historical data clearly show that crops are more productive, people are healthier, and they are more productive at work when temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold. That means that in cold countries, a little bit of warming can help but the opposite is true in places that are already hot.

For most counties, whether global warming has helped or hurt economic growth is pretty certain. Tropical countries in particular tend to have temperatures far outside the ideal for economic growth and they are already among the poorest countries. It is less clear how warming has influenced growth in countries in the middle latitudes, such as here in the United States. Some of the largest economies are near the perfect temperature for economic output but continued warming in the future is likely to push them away from the temperature optimum.

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Climate change has worsened global economic inequality

Photo, posted November 1, 2011, courtesy of CIAT via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Energy Justice In California

September 27, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

California put in place a cap-and-trade program in 2013. In such a program, companies pay penalties if they exceed a cap in carbon emissions but can buy and sell allowances that permit them to emit a given amount. Trading gives companies a strong incentive to save money by cutting emissions. Since taking effect, the California program has raised more than $6.5 billion and is the fourth largest in the world.