Climate crisis: The poor bear the brunt

Nature’s wrath has been flooding us all year round in the form of climate crises. Whether we see it or not, we avoid it or not, we care for it or not, every year, climate change gets worse. The number of victims is breaking records aligned with crisis parameters. Everyone suffers from the impacts, but the poor get no or severely limited chances to bounce back. The rich shatter nature, and the poor bear the fractures.

Climate shocks and extreme weather events such as cyclones, flash floods, heatwaves, droughts, untimely heavy rains, and catastrophic storms cause numerous dents in all lives. The impacts, ranging from rising sea levels to agricultural losses and many others, result in fatalities, food insecurities, landslides, displacements, and countless health hazards that do greater damage, especially to the poor. 

As the World Bank outlines in its recent report on the development of South Asia, the rural poor of Northern Bangladesh could recover only 22 per cent of their lost consumption due to heavy monsoon rains 10 years ago.

As per reports, in Bangladesh, this April will host moderate to severe heat waves with temperature predictions between 40 and 42 degrees Celsius. Last year, Dhaka saw 40.4 degrees, making it the hottest in 58 years. In 1965 Dhaka experienced the maximum 42 degree Celsius.

We know how the health risk increases, especially for the elderly, with the sudden rise in temperature. Bangladesh has seen 1,430 deaths of people aged 65 and up between 2017 and 2021. These deaths and ominous impacts of climate change repeat every year with droughts, floods, and cyclones as well.

The victims are mostly our poor populace, who cannot afford an icy drink or air-conditioned facilities during heat waves. Their homes are not built aerodynamically with robust structural design to withstand and endure the extreme forces exerted by high winds, heavy rainfall, flying debris, and flash floods. Moreover, they are not able to afford imported food items if a harvest is lost or damaged. And due to these unfortunate inabilities, they are forced to suffer the unjust consequences derived from the transgressions of the privileged. They will have more deaths, more casualties, more losses, more food insecurities, and most importantly, endless suffering.

It sounds frustrating, but the World Bank estimates that the world will see 21 million more deaths by 2050 due to the impacts of climate change on health, as health issues come from every event that occurs. So, who are these 21 million people? Most of them are seemingly poor from around the world. Not only this, if the climate crises continue, another 44 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030, subsequently increasing the death toll.

The world already knows the way out of this. We have been promised funds and protections to find tailored solutions locally and devise methods for quick implementation. But the irony is that what is promised stays promised for long, and the suffering continues.

As Bangladesh is ranked the seventh most extreme disaster risk-prone country in the world,  we may consider what Tamer Rabie, Global Program Lead for Climate and Health at the World Bank, says: “The decisions that we are making today are affecting generations to come. So, it is a joint responsibility; it is a collective responsibility.”

Source: Prothom Alo